Although big tech companies might like to boast that their mobile phones have some of the best quality microphones in the business, often, they can be bested by multiple, cheap market alternatives.
As a general rule, it is possible to use an external mic on an android phone. However; it depends on the make and model of the phone. Connecting an external microphone has the benefit of improving your audio recording quality.
I wanted to know if Android, one of the most widely used operating systems in the world, can support an external microphone; and if it can, how would you set one up?
Can I Use An External Mic On My Android Phone?
Most Android phones can support an external phone mic, however, it depends on the exact model of phone you have, and what type of microphone you’re planning on using.
There are essentially three main ways of connecting a microphone to your phone:
- Connect Phone Mic via Bluetooth
- Connect Phone Mic via Headphone Jack
- Connect via USB C TO USB ADAPTER
As mentioned, which method you use will depend on the model of phone you have, as some newer models have combined both the headphone and charging ports, so some options just won’t apply.
Let’s look closer at each method separately, and help you find out how to connect a microphone to your android device, as I have done.
How To Connect An External Mic On An Android Phone
1. How To Connect An External Microphone Via Bluetooth
For a Bluetooth microphone to work, you’ll need both a transmitter (either within a Bluetooth microphone or externally connected to a microphone) and a receiver (a “Bluetooth chip” found inside Bluetooth devices/receivers).
Since the receiver is pre-installed on your device, the only thing you have to worry about is a transmitter.
If you don’t want to bother with the trouble of connecting a separate transmitter to the mic, ensure the microphone you have/ are going to purchase has the transmitter built-in.
Once you’ve got both the transmitter and receiver at your disposal, here is how you connect a Bluetooth mic to your phone:
How To Connect A Bluetooth Mic To Your Phone
- Turn the transmitter on.
- Check that your phone is bluetooth discoverable.
- Place the two within a suitable range of each other, and the microphone should show up on your phone’s Bluetooth devices as an option.
- Tap on it to allow the Bluetooth mic to connect.
Here is an example of a well-reviewed wireless mic from Rode, the “Rode Wireless Go”, which can be purchased on Amazon.
This system boasts up to 7 hours of battery life and seems like a really tidy and good-sounding solution.
2. How To Connect An External Mic Using The Headphone Jack
The main problem with using the headphone jack method is that these outputs do exactly that; output sound. The headphone jack does not allow sound input, so connecting a microphone to one will serve no use.
To get around this issue and use your phone headphone jack as an external mic input, you’ll have to purchase a TRRS adapter. These allow you to input audio from the mic into the headphone jack.
Here is an affordable TRRS adaptor from Amazon.
It may not be obvious at first how this adapter works, so here is an awesome explainer video from TheRenderQ on YouTube, demonstrating how a TRSS connector works.
You may or may not notice that this is just a connector. You will still need an external phone microphone.
Now, much like how Bluetooth microphones can have the transmitters already installed, the same goes for microphones for this method; some microphones will have TRRS adapters built-in, so you won’t have to worry about paying extra for the adapter.
From my experience, I have found it hard to find phone mics with the TRRS adapter already built in, but you might get lucky and find a “plug and play” option. Just be aware that you may still have to purchase a TRRS adaptor.
3. How To Connect A USB Microphone To Android
Did you know you can connect a USB microphone to your smartphone?
I thought this was amazing when I first learned this. You can do this using a USB C to USB Adapter.
Depending on the model of your phone, it may be possible to use the power inlet of your phone as a microphone input by using an adaptor.
Here is an adapter that converts USB C to USB. Into this USB port, you can then connect to your USB microphone.
This awesome explanation from GregglesTV on YouTube shows how it is done!
How To Record Audio On Android Phone?
One thing that I haven’t mentioned thus far is that for almost all these methods, you’ll need to have some sort of audio capturing app installed on your device.
Of course, you can use the default audio capturing app that will typically come pre-installed on your phone, but a majority of the time, these default apps don’t have as many interesting features as ones you can download from your play store/app store.
If you want to get the most out of your external mic, it’s worth checking out some of these apps. Most of them are free to access, so you won’t have to worry about spending even more of your hard-earned cash on top of the pricy microphone.
Take a look at audio capture or audio recording apps in the Google android app store.
Final Thoughts
External microphones can be a great way to improve the quality of your audio when recording.
In this article, we have looked at three different ways that you can connect an external mic to your Android phone.
The first method uses Bluetooth, the second uses a TRRS adapter, and the third uses a USB microphone.
Whichever method you choose, make sure you have good audio recording software installed on your android phone. This can be found for free on the Google android app store.
Having an external microphone on your android phone can greatly increase the audio quality and help you record and produce better sound content.
Happy recording!