Help Using a Mic When Recording Video

[Stuntman]

I was testing out recording some videos with my phone and found that the sound quality is quite poor. I was looking for a lapel mic to use with my phone when recording videos to improve the sound quality. I went to an electronics store and tried one out. I plugged the mic into the 3.5mm headphone jack and tried recording a video. I found that the lapel mic would not engage and all of the audio was still recorded using the mic on the phone. I could not find any setting that would make video recordings use a mic in the headphone jack to record sound.

Is this even possible on the Moto Z2 Play? Am I using the wrong mic? Do I need a special jack?

 

[rdsok]

The plug is a 4 connector plug that supports stereo for the output and a mono input channel. A lot of lapel mics use just a 2 or 3 connector plug.

 

[mikedt]

^^^^
Yeh...you can't use a wired lapel or lavalier type mic with a phone. FWIW anyone I've seen who uses these type of mics for something like vlogging on YouTube, usually uses either a DSLR or GoPro camera, which you can use wired lapel mics with.

 

[rdsok]

There are certainly some lavalier style mics made for use with smartphones... you'd just have to look at the right places ( Amazon or cellphone specific type shops )

 

[Stuntman]

Thanks, for the replies, everyone. That explains why the lapel mic I tried didn't work.

With the trend away from the 3.5mm jack, are there mics that use the USB-C connector instead?

 

[rdsok]

Thanks, for the replies, everyone. That explains why the lapel mic I tried didn't work.

With the trend away from the 3.5mm jack, are there mics that use the USB-C connector instead?

If there aren't now ( I'm uncertain as a quick search didn't turn any up ) there will likely be in the future but it also brings another probably even more important question you didn't ask up... Does or will Android have a driver available to use such a device. USB devices always require drivers to operate therefore it would have to natively supported within Android making it a less likely solution.

I'd recommend finding a 3.5mm jack mic that fits your needs for the time being if you want a quicker solution