Your phone as a microphone on Linux: Linksy and AudioRelay compared

Linksy can turn your Android phone into a microphone for your Linux computer, one of the things people use AudioRelay for. It's free and open source, and the same app also makes the phone a webcam, moves files, shares the clipboard and screens. What Linksy doesn't do is AudioRelay's other half: playing the computer's sound on the phone.

Linksy and AudioRelay side by side

See AudioRelay's site for its current platforms and plans.

How the phone becomes a microphone

Once the phone and computer are paired, open the phone's page on the computer and choose Start Microphone. The phone's microphone appears on the computer as Linksy Microphone, so calls, recording apps and OBS can pick it. The sound goes straight from the phone to the computer over your Wi‑Fi, uncompressed, and never through a server.

Using the phone as a webcam at the same time works too, which makes it a complete camera and microphone for a call from across the room.

Which one should you use?

• Choose Linksy if you want the phone as a microphone, or a webcam and microphone together, on Linux, along with files, the clipboard and screens.
• Choose AudioRelay if you want to hear your computer's sound on your phone, as wireless speakers or headphones. Linksy doesn't do that.