Much like video quality matters, audio quality also makes a big difference when communicating via videoconferencing tools like Zoom, Teams and Loom. (More about video quality: 
Home Office 🔈
If you’re in a quiet environment like a home office, consider using a good-quality microphone mounted on a boom arm. Youtube is full of advice on choosing and mounting external microphones. Whichever one you choose, make sure you:
- Read the instructions – some mics need you to talk to them at a certain angle.
- Keep it close to your mouth (unless you have a fancy shotgun mic)
- Make a few recordings with different positions and gain settings to find the best ones. (If you have a background whine, consider plugging directly into your laptop rather than using a USB hub.)
On the go ☕
If you work in a noisy environment, you should almost always use a good quality set of noise cancelling headphones with a good quality mic. Apple’s AirPods are great for this, but there are tons of other options – both wired and wireless.
The best headsets use use extra microphones to pick up the room’s noise and use that to cancel it out in the signal from your main mic. If this isn’t enough, you can use a tool like Krisp to automatically remove background noise.
Volume & Étiquette 🗣️
Many people who are new to videoconferencing end up speaking either too loudly or too softly on calls. This can be a real barrier to communication, so it's a good idea to ask for some feedback on the volume of your voice.
It can also be useful to practice on your own – especially if you've got a new microphone or headset. You can do this by opening a call on your own and recording it.
If you're using your laptop's built-in microphone, you might need to speak up a little more than if you have a headset. Likewise, if you have a loud voice, you might need to speak a little more softly when you're using a headset (or adjust your microphone level).
You should do also the following when on video calls:
- Mute when you're not speaking - On group calls, always mute yourself when you're not speaking, and remember to unmute when you want to speak. For one-to-one calls this is less important unless you're in a noisy environment, and can often be negative since muting/unmuting interrupts the flow of conversation.
- Speak up when someone is muted - If someone is speaking but they're muted, tell them as quickly as you can.
