Why is there an echo on my video calls?

Echo happens when sound from your speakers is picked up by a microphone and sent back — creating a feedback loop where participants hear themselves delayed.

The key diagnostic point: the person who hears the echo is almost never the person causing it. If you hear your own voice repeated, the problem is at the other end — their microphone is picking up their speakers playing you. Telling them, rather than adjusting your own settings, is the fix.

Why software normally prevents it. Conferencing applications include acoustic echo cancellation (AEC), which knows what it is sending to the speakers and subtracts that signal from what the microphone captures. It works well in normal conditions and fails in specific circumstances:

Volume too high. Loud output overwhelms the cancellation, and can drive the microphone into distortion where the algorithm cannot match the signal.

External speakers positioned near the microphone, especially pointing at it.

Two devices in the same room joined to the same call — the classic cause, and it produces the worst echo. Everyone in one room should join with audio off except one device.

Multiple applications competing for the audio device, so the canceller does not see the true output.

Bluetooth latency can exceed what the canceller's model expects.

Hard reflective rooms with bare walls and floors extend reverberation beyond the cancellation window.

Virtual audio cables and mixers bypass AEC entirely.

What reliably fixes it, in order:

Use headphones. This removes the loop physically and solves essentially every case.

Lower the speaker volume and move speakers away from the microphone.

Mute when not speaking.

Ensure only one device per room has audio active.

Check that the app's echo cancellation setting is enabled — some disable it in "original sound" or high-fidelity music modes.