Your Sony mic,
heard again

1. Select the headphones as the Mac's input

macOS keeps the output (what you hear) and the input (the microphone) separate. Your headphones can be the output while the Mac still listens through its built-in microphone, or the other way round.

1. Open System Settings → Sound.
2. Under Input, select your Sony headphones.
3. Speak: the Input level meter should move. If it doesn't, raise the Input volume slider.

If the headphones aren't in the Input list, they aren't connected as a headset. Disconnect and reconnect them in System Settings → Bluetooth, then look again. If that doesn't help, see Sony headphones not connecting.

As soon as the Mac uses the headphones' microphone, Bluetooth switches to a mode for calls and music sounds worse until the microphone is no longer in use. That's normal: why calls sound bad explains it, and how to avoid it.

2. Give your apps microphone access

macOS asks the first time an app wants the microphone. If you chose Don't Allow, the app hears nothing, whatever microphone you pick.

1. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone.
2. Turn on the app you call with: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Discord, or the browser you use for Google Meet.
3. Quit and reopen that app.

3. Check the meeting app's own settings

Meeting apps choose their own microphone, and don't always follow the Mac. In the app's audio or voice settings, select your headphones as the microphone (or the option that follows the system), then use its test to check. Sony headphones for meetings shows where the setting is in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Discord.

Also check that you aren't muted in the app, and that only one app is using the microphone: quit other call apps and close browser tabs with calls in them.

4. The cable carries no microphone

Every 1000X model comes with a headphone cable, but the headphones' microphone isn't used over it. Sony's Help Guides say to take wired calls on the phone and talk using the phone's microphone. Bluetooth turns off while the cable is plugged in, so the Mac can't use the headphones' microphone either.

The USB-C port (micro-USB on the MDR-1000X and WH-1000XM2) is for charging, not audio. While they charge, the WH-1000XM4 and WH-1000XM5 can't be used at all; the WH-1000XM6 and WH-1000XX can. For calls, connect over Bluetooth. More in USB-C and wired listening.

5. Rule out the headphones' other connections

If the headphones are also connected to your phone, a call on the phone can take them over. Disconnect them from the phone, or turn its Bluetooth off for a moment, and try again on the Mac. Sony headphones with a Mac and iPhone explains how each model shares a connection.

On the WH-1000XM4 and newer, Speak-to-Chat also reacts to your voice: it pauses or quiets your audio when you talk. That's not a microphone fault, but if audio cuts out every time you speak, turn it off. Sony also says to turn it off for calls over the cable.

What Open Sound Connect can and can't do here

Open Sound Connect has no microphone controls: choosing the microphone, its level and call audio are handled by macOS and your meeting app. What it can do is turn Speak-to-Chat off from your Mac on the Voice page (⌘3) and in the menu bar, and show whether the headphones are connected. If the headphones play audio but don't appear in the app, see headphones not detected.