How to share audio on Google Meet on a Mac

“To share audio, share a tab instead”: what it means

Meet shows this when you pick a window or your entire screen and it can’t take the sound with it. Meet’s help puts it plainly: to share audio from a presentation, you present a tab with tab audio on. Sound from a window or a screen is the exception, and needs a recent Chrome on a recent macOS.

So the message leaves you three choices:

• Present the tab that plays the sound, not the window it sits in.
• Update Chrome and macOS, and turn on Meet’s system audio option for a window or screen.
• Skip presenting, and send the sound into your microphone instead.

Present a Chrome tab with audio

1. Open the video or demo in its own Chrome tab, and pause it at the start.
2. In the call, click Share screen and choose the tab option, then pick that tab.
3. Check that “Also share tab audio” is on. It is by default.
4. Click Share, then play.

The call sees the tab and hears it, and nothing else from your Mac: no notifications, no other tabs. It is still a presentation, though. The sound stops when you stop presenting, and only one person can present at a time, so it can’t play while a colleague shows their slides.

Present a window or your screen with your Mac’s sound

Since December 2025, Meet can send your Mac’s sound with a window or your entire screen, so a desktop app’s sound can come along. It needs Google Chrome 142 or newer and macOS 14.2 or newer, and it’s off by default:

1. Click Share screen and choose a window or your entire screen.
2. Turn on “Also share system audio”, then click Share.
3. The first time, macOS asks for permission to capture the sound. Allow it.

This sends all of your Mac’s sound, including notification sounds, for as long as you present. Google recommends leaving your Mac’s default output device as Meet’s speaker, so the call doesn’t pick its own sound up as an echo.

Share audio without presenting

Meet listens to one microphone. If that microphone carries your voice and the tab’s sound together, the call hears both, with no presentation, while someone else presents if they like.

Patch, which we make, is that microphone on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later: it mixes your mic and the sounds you add into a virtual mic called Patch Mix. Its free browser extension, Patch for Chrome, sends one tab’s sound into Patch, only the tab you choose, only after you click. It works in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Arc.

1. Add a Chrome tab in Patch. Install Patch, add your microphone as a source, then open the add-source list and choose “Add a Chrome tab”.
2. Add Patch for Chrome. Add Patch for Chrome from the Chrome Web Store, in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Arc. Chrome asks once about your microphone; that only lets Patch for Chrome find the Patch speaker. It never listens.
3. Pin it. Click the puzzle piece in the browser toolbar, then the pin next to Patch, so Patch sits in the toolbar.
4. Send the tab. Open the video, clip or demo in a tab. Click Patch in the toolbar, then Send this tab.
5. Choose Patch Mix in Meet. In the Meet call, open More options › Settings › Audio. Set Microphone to Patch Mix and Speakers to your headphones.
6. Go live. Click Go live in Patch. From then on the call hears your voice and the tab together, with no presenting.

The tab goes quiet in the browser and you hear it through Patch, so you hear exactly what the call hears. The tab has its own fader in Patch, set under your voice, and a limiter on the mix keeps a loud clip from clipping. Click Stop when you’re done, or click Patch on another tab to send that one instead. If the tab reloads or moves to another site, Patch stops sending it.

Meet can run in the same browser. Patch for Chrome refuses the Meet tab itself, so the call never hears an echo of itself. More on how it works in share a tab’s audio in a call.

On Safari or Firefox

Safari and Firefox don’t offer tab audio when you present, so in those browsers Meet can share your screen but not its sound. You can keep the call where it is and change the microphone instead: Patch Mix works as your microphone in Meet in any browser that lets Meet pick a microphone.

• Sound from an app: add the app playing the sound to Patch, such as Music, QuickTime or another browser, and choose Patch Mix as your microphone in Meet. Don’t add the browser the call is in, or the call hears itself.
• Sound from a web page: open it in Chrome, Edge or Arc and send that tab with Patch for Chrome, while Meet stays in Safari or Firefox.

Google Meet share audio not working?

• Tab or window: sharing a window of your browser isn’t sharing the tab. Stop, and choose the tab option.
• The switch: “Also share tab audio” or “Also share system audio” has to be on when you click Share. Stop presenting, turn it on, and share again.
• The Mac’s permission: for system audio, macOS must allow your browser under Privacy & Security. See no sound when screen sharing for where that is.
• Noise cancellation: if Meet’s Audio settings show Noise cancellation, turn it off, or Meet strips music and other sounds that aren’t speech.
• Speaker: for system audio, Google recommends leaving Meet’s speaker on your Mac’s default output device; with Patch, choose your headphones. Either way, wear headphones, so nobody hears an echo.
• With Patch: check that Meet’s microphone is Patch Mix and that you clicked Go live, and click Send this tab again if the tab reloaded.

Playing music rather than a clip? See play music on Google Meet for keeping it under your voice.

Questions