Troubleshoot voice echoing in your video call

Why is my audio echoing? 

An echo in a video call happens when a participant has their speakers too close to their microphone.  You'll hear your voice echoing when the sound comes out of a participant's speaker and back into their own microphone.  Based on the definition of an echo in a video call you can quickly determine two things:

1. If you hear your voice echoing when speaking, you are not causing it.
2. If you do not hear an echo when you are speaking, you are most likely causing the echo.

How do I fix the echoing?

Understanding what causes an echo can help everyone on the video call quickly resolve the problem and return to the purpose of the call.  Here are a few tips for troubleshooting echoing in your video call.

1. Ask participants to mute themselves when they are not speaking.

Muting yourself when you are not speaking during the video call is a good practice even when there is not an echoing issue.  Your microphone can pick up different noises that can take away from the active speaker.  Shuffling your device around, typing on your keyboard, or dogs barking in the background can all be heard by other participants if you do not mute while you are not speaking.  

In order to determine which participant, or group of participants, is causing the echo everyone who does not hear the echo needs to mute their microphone.  Then, each participant that is muted can unmute one by one.  You'll know immediately who the culprit is because the echo will come back immediately. 

2. Plug in headphones. 

Headphone microphones rarely pick up sounds from your speaker because the speakers are in your ears.  This is typically the easiest solution.  Otherwise, you will need to move your microphone further away from your speakers or reduce the volume of your speakers so your microphone does not pick up the sound.