How to use your iPhone as a microphone for your Mac
Your Mac has a mic, or it does not, and either way "use my iPhone as a mic" can mean two different things.
Short answer: Apple lets an iPhone become your Mac's system microphone through Continuity Camera, selectable in System Settings > Sound on macOS Ventura or later with an iPhone XR or later on iOS 16 or later, both signed into the same Apple Account. Separately, MightyMouse lets you talk into your iPhone and have the words typed into any Mac app for free, using transcription that runs on the Mac itself.
Search "use iPhone as microphone for Mac" and you get one answer mashed into two questions. Do you want your iPhone to be the microphone a video call or a recording app picks up, the way a USB mic would be? Or do you want to talk into your iPhone and have the words show up as text in an email, a document, or a terminal? Apple has an answer for the first one. It has no answer for the second, because typing text is not what a system microphone does.
This matters most on a Mac mini, which is the search variant that gives it away: a Mac mini has no built-in microphone at all, so both of these problems show up on day one instead of only when you travel without your laptop.
Job 1: iPhone as an input device, for calls and recording
This is Apple's Continuity Camera microphone. Once set up, your iPhone shows up in the system list of audio inputs, the same list your Mac's built-in mic or a USB mic would be in, and any app that lets you pick a microphone can pick your phone instead: Zoom, FaceTime, QuickTime, Logic Pro, GarageBand.
Apple's own support page states the requirements plainly: "Make sure your Mac has the latest version of macOS Ventura and your iPhone has the latest version of iOS 16," and "Sign in to both devices with the same Apple ID," with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on for both (as of September 2026). The iPhone needs to be an iPhone XR or later.
Steps: turn your iPhone into a Mac input device
- On your iPhone, sign in to the same Apple Account as your Mac, and keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.
- On your Mac, open System Settings and click Sound in the sidebar.
- Click the Input tab and choose your iPhone from the list, listed under a name like "Continuity Camera."
- Your iPhone chimes and shows a "Connected" screen. It is now the Mac's microphone.
- Open whichever app you want to use it in (Zoom, FaceTime, GarageBand) and confirm the same device is selected there if the app has its own microphone picker.
A couple of details the setup steps do not spell out. If your Mac has no built-in camera (a Mac mini or an external-display iMac setup), your iPhone has to sit in landscape orientation, stationary, and locked for this to work. And the first connection sometimes wants a one-time USB cable to register the Mac as trusted before it will do this over Wi-Fi.
How to turn off iPhone as microphone (disable it)
Two ways, depending on whether you want it off for a minute or off for good.
- Pause it. A "Pause" control shows up on the iPhone's lock screen while it is connected. Tapping it stops audio without breaking the pairing, so the next call can pick it back up.
- Disconnect it. Tap "Disconnect" on the same iPhone screen, or just change the input back to your Mac's built-in mic (or another device) in System Settings > Sound > Input. That drops the connection the way unplugging a USB mic would.
There is no separate toggle to turn the feature off forever short of signing the two devices out of the same Apple Account, which is not something most people want to do just to stop a mic handoff. In practice, picking a different input device is the disable switch.
Job 2: iPhone as a dictation mic, for typing into any app
This is a completely different job, and it is the one Continuity Camera cannot do. You are not trying to make a call or record a track. You want to talk, and have the words appear as text, wherever your cursor is: an email, a code editor, a terminal, a document.
This is what MightyMouse turns your iPhone into a microphone that types into any Mac app, with transcription that runs locally and for free does. Open the app's phone remote from your Mac's settings, scan the code with your iPhone, and Safari opens a control page with a mic button. Hold it, talk, let go, and the words are typed into whatever app is active on your Mac. Under the hood, the phone records with the browser's microphone API, sends the audio to the Mac over your own network, and the Mac's own speech engine turns it into text before pasting it in, the same local pipeline our Mac dictation uses when you talk into the Mac's own mic.
Steps: dictate from your iPhone into a Mac app
- Install MightyMouse on your Mac and open Settings > Phone Remote.
- Scan the QR code with your iPhone's camera. Safari opens a control page and pairs once.
- Click into the Mac app where you want the text to land (Mail, Slack, your editor, a terminal).
- On your iPhone, hold the mic button and talk. Let go when you are done.
- The words are typed at your cursor on the Mac, a moment later.
On your own Wi-Fi this is free and unlimited on every plan. Away from home it runs over your iPhone's cellular connection instead, and that leg has a free monthly allowance rather than being unlimited.
The part worth being precise about: it does not become a system mic
It would be easy to assume the dictation mic and the Continuity Camera mic are the same mechanism with different UI. They are not, and the difference matters for what each one can do.
There is one real exception, and it is worth naming because it looks similar from the outside. MightyMouse also ships a separate, genuine macOS system audio input device that feeds the iPhone's live mic into any app with a microphone picker, the same shelf Continuity Camera sits on, so an app like ChatGPT's voice mode, which has no microphone picker of its own and just uses the system default input, hears your phone. Turning this on needs a one-time admin password to install a driver, because macOS only loads audio drivers from a system folder.
So there are, in the end, three things that can happen when you talk into your iPhone near a Mac, and only you know which one you actually want:
- Continuity Camera puts your iPhone in the system input list. Any app with a mic picker can use it for calls or recording. Apple's feature, no MightyMouse involved.
- MightyMouse dictation types the words you say into whichever Mac app has focus, as text, for free, with no system input device involved at all. This is the fast path for most people asking this question.
- MightyMouse's phone-mic input device puts your iPhone in the system input list too, the way Continuity Camera does, for apps like ChatGPT's voice mode that pick a device rather than record for dictation.
When Continuity Camera is the better pick
If you are on a video call, recording a podcast, or laying down a vocal in GarageBand, you want Continuity Camera or MightyMouse's input-device mode, not dictation. Dictation types words. It does not carry a live audio stream into a call or a recording app, and it never will, because typing text and streaming audio solve different problems by design.
The honest tradeoff on the MightyMouse side: dictation needs your Mac awake and on the same network (or a cellular connection away from home), and it adds roughly a second of processing after you stop talking while the local model works. Continuity Camera has no processing delay because it is a live stream, but it has its own cost: the iPhone has to stay in range, signed into the same Apple Account, and if your Mac has no built-in camera, the phone has to sit still and locked to be seen at all.
Can you use iPhone as microphone for Mac mini
Yes, and a Mac mini is exactly where this question stops being optional. A Mac mini ships with no built-in microphone, so unless you plug in a USB mic, you have nothing until you set up one of these two. Continuity Camera works on a Mac mini the same way it does on a MacBook, with the landscape-and-locked requirement above. MightyMouse's dictation and phone-mic-as-input-device both work the same way too, since neither depends on the Mac having its own mic hardware in the first place; they only need the Mac to be reachable on your network.
FAQ, answered directly
A few specific versions of this question, answered on their own.
Talk into your iPhone. The words type into any Mac app.
Free local transcription, no card to try it.
Common questions
Can I use my iPhone as a microphone for my Mac wirelessly?
Yes, both Continuity Camera and MightyMouse's dictation work over Wi-Fi with no cable, once the initial pairing is done. Continuity Camera sometimes wants a one-time USB connection to register the Mac as trusted before it works wirelessly.
Can you use iPhone as microphone for GarageBand?
Yes. Set your iPhone as the input device in System Settings > Sound > Input using Continuity Camera, then GarageBand will list it as an available input for a new track, the same as any other microphone.
How do I disable iPhone as microphone for Mac?
Tap "Disconnect" on your iPhone's lock screen, or switch the input back to your Mac's built-in microphone or another device in System Settings > Sound > Input. There is a "Pause" option too if you only want it off temporarily.
Does iPhone as a Mac microphone cost anything?
No. Continuity Camera is a free Apple feature built into macOS and iOS. MightyMouse's dictation is also free on your own Wi-Fi, with a free monthly allowance for use away from home over cellular.
Why can't I see my iPhone in the Sound input list?
The most common causes are the two devices being signed into different Apple Accounts, Bluetooth being off on either device, or the iPhone being older than an iPhone XR. Both devices also need to be within about 30 feet of each other.
For the dictation half of this: MightyMouse turns your iPhone into a free microphone that types into any Mac app, with transcription that runs on your own Mac.