Camera and microphone test
Test your webcam and microphone in the browser. Nothing is recorded and nothing is uploaded — this page has no server to send it to.
Runs in your browser
The picture and the sound stay in this page. Nothing is recorded, and nothing is sent anywhere — this tool has no server to send it to.
What it does
Press a button, grant permission, and the camera’s picture appears and the microphone’s level moves. That is the whole test, and it answers the question people actually have before a call: is the hardware working, and is the right device selected.
Nothing is recorded and nothing is uploaded
This is worth being specific about, because it is the claim that matters and it is easy to make hollow.
The picture is drawn into a <video> element in this page. The sound is measured by the
browser’s own audio analyser to move the meter. Neither is written to disk, buffered, or
sent anywhere — and there is no server behind this page that could receive it. The site is
static files; the only route to anything server-side in the whole catalogue is a small
address lookup and a redirect follower, and neither is on this page.
The check you can make yourself: press stop, and the camera’s indicator light goes out. That light is wired to the hardware, not to the page, and it is the honest signal.
Permissions
The browser asks once per site, and remembers the answer.
| State | What happens |
|---|---|
| Not yet asked | a prompt appears when you press the button |
| Allowed | the device starts immediately |
| Blocked | nothing happens, and this page shows why |
If you blocked it and want to change your mind, the prompt will not appear again — the setting has to be changed in the browser:
- Chrome, Edge — the icon at the left of the address bar → Site settings
- Firefox — the permissions icon in the address bar, or Settings → Privacy & Security
- Safari — Settings → Websites → Camera / Microphone
Access also requires a secure context. A page served over plain HTTP cannot ask for a
camera at all, except on localhost.
Why the device list is empty at first
Before permission is granted, the browser reports the devices with blank labels. That is deliberate: the list of hardware attached to a machine is itself identifying, so a page that has never been allowed in does not get to read it.
Once you allow access, the labels appear and the menus fill in. If you have several cameras or microphones, switch between them here to find which is which.
When it does not work
| Symptom | Usual cause |
|---|---|
| Permission prompt never appears | already blocked for this site, or the page is not on HTTPS |
| “Could not be opened” | another application has the device — video call apps hold it open even when minimised |
| Black picture, no error | a physical privacy shutter, or the lens cover on a laptop |
| Camera works, wrong one starts | pick the device explicitly in the menu |
| Meter stays at zero | wrong input selected, hardware mute switch, or the system input volume is at zero |
The second row is the most common by far. Close the other video call application entirely — on most systems a minimised meeting window still holds the camera.
Reading the level meter
The meter shows the input level in decibels, not a linear amplitude. That is deliberate: a linear meter makes ordinary speech look like almost nothing, because loudness is perceived logarithmically.
| Reading | Means |
|---|---|
| Bottom of the scale | silence, or nothing reaching the input |
| Moving with your voice, mid-scale | working correctly |
| Pinned at the top | input gain too high, and the sound will be clipping |
| Moving without you speaking | picking up background noise or a fan |
Speak at your normal call volume and aim for the middle. A signal that touches the top on every word is distorting before it reaches anyone.