How to See Which App Is Using the Microphone on Windows 11

A microphone icon appeared in the taskbar corner, or you want to know what has been recording. Windows 11 shows both the app using the mic right now and every app that used it in the past week.

Check the taskbar icon

While an app is using the microphone, a small mic icon appears in the taskbar corner near the clock. Hover over it to see the name of the app. Click it to jump to the Microphone privacy page.

Open the Microphone privacy page

Go to Settings, Privacy & security, Microphone. The page lists every app that has asked for microphone access, each with its own toggle.

Review recent activity

Scroll down the list. An app that used the microphone shows a last-accessed date and time under its name, covering the last 7 days. Expand Recent activity near the bottom to see desktop programs, which are listed separately from Store apps.

Block an app

Turn off the toggle next to a Store app to stop it using the mic. To block everything at once, turn off Let apps access your microphone at the top of the page. Desktop programs installed from the web appear under Let desktop apps access your microphone; that one switch blocks them as a group, and Windows cannot block them one at a time.

Turn the microphone off entirely

Go to Settings, System, Sound, click the microphone under Input, and click Don't allow next to Audio. No app can use it until you click Allow again.

If the app is a browser. The privacy page lists only Chrome, Edge, or Firefox, not the website. The browser shows a mic icon in the tab and at the right end of the address bar; click it to see which site is recording and to block it.

If you want the same check for the camera or location. The same pages exist under Settings, Privacy & security, Camera and Location, with the same per-app toggles and recent activity list.