Guide · Zoom · Meet · Teams · Discord · Mac
How to share audio without sharing your screen
You want the call to hear a video, a song or a sound clip, and you don’t want to put your screen up to do it. Most call apps don’t offer that. Here’s what each one can do on its own, and the way that works in all of them.
The short version
- Only Zoom sends sound with nothing on screen, with Computer Audio, and that is still a share.
- Meet, Teams, Discord, Webex and Slack tie sound to a screen share or a presentation.
- Every call app hears your microphone. Put the sound there, and you don’t share anything.
At a glance
| App | Without a share | With Patch |
|---|---|---|
| Zoom | Yes: Computer Audio sends your Mac’s sound with no screen. It still counts as a share. | Patch Mix under Settings › Audio › Microphone. |
| Google Meet | No. Tab audio and system audio come with presenting. | Patch Mix under Settings › Audio › Microphone. |
| Microsoft Teams | No. Include sound goes with a screen share. | Patch Mix under Settings › Devices › Microphone. |
| Discord | No. App sound goes with a stream, to people watching it. | Patch Mix under Voice & Video › Input Device. |
| Webex | No. Share computer audio goes with a share. | Patch Mix under Settings › Audio › Microphone. |
| Slack huddles | No. Share system audio goes with a screen share. | Patch Mix under Preferences › Audio & video. |
From each app’s own help pages. Google Meet runs in a browser; the others are their Mac desktop apps.
The way that works everywhere: your microphone
A screen share is the only door most call apps open for sound. The other door is your microphone, which every call app hears all the time. If the sound goes into the microphone with your voice, the call hears it with no share, no presenting and nothing on screen.
Patch, which we make, does this on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. It mixes your microphone with the sources you add into a virtual mic called Patch Mix. A source can be a Mac app, or one browser tab sent by Patch for Chrome, a free extension for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Arc. To send a tab:
- Add a Chrome tab in Patch. In Patch, the add-source list has “Add a Chrome tab”.
- Add Patch for Chrome. Add Patch for Chrome from the Chrome Web Store. Chrome asks once about your microphone; that only lets Patch for Chrome find the Patch speaker. It never listens.
- Pin it. Click the puzzle piece, then the pin.
- Send the tab. On the tab you want callers to hear, click Patch in the toolbar, then Send this tab.
- Choose Patch Mix in the call app. In the call app, choose Patch Mix as the microphone, and your headphones as the speaker.
- Go live. Click Go live in Patch. From then on the call hears your voice and the tab together, with no share.
Only the tab you choose goes, and only after you click. It goes quiet in the browser and you hear it through Patch, so you hear what your callers hear. Click Stop when you’re done, or click Patch on another tab to send that one instead. More on how it works in share a tab’s audio in any call.
Zoom
Zoom is the one app with a sound-only option. Click Share Screen, open Advanced, choose Computer Audio and click Share. The meeting hears your Mac’s sound and sees nothing.
It is still a share, though. It sends everything your Mac plays, and it ends if someone else starts sharing.
With Patch: Choose Patch Mix under Microphone in Zoom’s audio settings, and the sound arrives as part of your voice instead. Nobody else’s share interrupts it.
Google Meet
Meet sends sound only while you present. Present a Chrome tab and its sound comes with it. Present a window or your whole screen and you can turn on “Also share system audio”, which Google says needs Chrome 142 or newer and macOS 14.2 or newer.
Either way everyone sees what you present, and only one person can present at a time.
With Patch: Choose Patch Mix as the microphone in Meet’s audio settings. Meet can run in the same browser: Patch for Chrome refuses the meeting’s own tab, so callers never hear themselves, and any other tab can go.
Microsoft Teams
Teams has no sound-only share. In the desktop app, Include sound sends sound with a screen share, and on a Mac it needs the Teams audio driver. In a browser, the tab and system audio options come with a share too.
With Patch: Choose Patch Mix as the microphone in Settings › Devices, in the desktop app or in a browser.
Discord
Discord sends an app’s sound with a screen share, on macOS 13 or later, and only the people watching your stream hear it. Mac users report it as unreliable: the sound option missing, or silent for some apps.
With Patch: Choose Patch Mix as the Input Device in Voice & Video, and the whole voice channel hears the sound, whether or not anyone watches a stream.
Webex
Webex sends sound with Share computer audio, which is part of a screen or app share. People see what you share as well.
With Patch: Choose Patch Mix as the microphone in Settings › Audio, rather than Follow system setting.
Slack huddles
A huddle sends sound with Share system audio, when you share your screen from the Slack desktop app. There’s no way to send sound on its own.
With Patch: Choose Patch Mix as the microphone in Preferences › Audio & video, before you start or join the huddle.
Questions
Can I share audio without sharing my screen?
In Zoom, yes, with Share Screen › Advanced › Computer Audio, though it still counts as a share. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Webex and Slack only send sound with a screen share or a presentation. In any of them, you can put the sound in your microphone instead, with a virtual mic such as Patch.
Can I share audio without presenting in Google Meet?
Not with Meet alone. Its tab audio and system audio both come with presenting. To send a tab’s sound without presenting, use Patch for Chrome with Patch, and choose Patch Mix as your microphone in Meet.
Will people hear my notifications?
With a whole-screen share, or Zoom’s Computer Audio, they can, because those send all of your Mac’s sound. Patch for Chrome sends one tab and nothing else from the browser or the Mac, and Patch sends only the sources you add.
Do I need headphones?
Yes, choose your headphones as the call’s speaker. If the call plays through your Mac’s speakers, your microphone hears it and people get an echo.
Does Patch for Chrome work in Safari or Firefox?
No. It works in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Arc on a Mac. To send sound from Safari, add Safari to Patch as an app instead.
Does the sound leave my Mac?
Only through the call, as part of your microphone. Patch for Chrome collects no data and makes no network connections; the tab’s sound goes straight to Patch on your Mac.