Ensuring microphone access when using Beam Notes on your phone

Blocked microphone access can cause silent recordings, poor audio quality, or blank summaries.

This guide outlines common issues that may block microphone access and how to prevent them when using Beam Notes on your mobile device

Manually locking your phone

When the mobile device is locked, microphone permission is cut off. 

Phone Auto-Locking

Beam Notes is designed to function despite screen lock settings, but the following issues may still cause disruptions:

• Accessing Beam Notes via a home screen shortcut 
• Phone battery is low 
• Using an unsupported browser (Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome are recommended) 

Navigating Away from the Recording Page 

Beam Notes only has access to the microphone if you remain on the recording page. If you navigate away from this page, microphone permission is lost. 

This includes if you :

• Make/receive a phone call 
• Use the camera
• Go to any other application, e.g. checking emails, viewing other documents or applications. Go back to your home screen

Stay on the recording page to ensure Beam Notes captures the full audio.

Not Using Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome 

Beam Notes works best with the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge internet browsers. This is because our anti auto-lock technology is only compatible with these browsers. 

Login link opening in another default browser

If you have previously set an alternative default browser, clicking the login link button may cause Beam Notes to open on your default browser. You will need to update your default browser settings with either Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. To read how to change your default browser, click here. 

Microphone permissions

You may have previously rejected microphone permissions on your mobile device. To check this and allow permission, please visit your internet browser settings.

You may have previously rejected pop-ups seeking microphone permissions. To ensure you can access your microphone, please click ‘allow’ on the pop-up.

You may have not allowed/rejected the microphone permissions pop-up. If this happens, please click ‘allow’ on the pop-up. 

Connecting to wireless headphones/external microphone

If you aren’t intending to use headphones, but your mobile device automatically connects to wireless headphones, this may disrupt microphone access as your device may default to using the microphone on your headphones during a recording. To avoid this, please make sure you have disconnected from any external audio devices or disable bluetooth before you begin recording.