Test your microphone and audio on Skype by adding the contact “echo123″

First published on February 8, 2007

After all this time being a Skype user, I never knew this little trick…

If you are unsure about whether your headset / microphone / speakers are working with Skype, just call the contact “echo123″. It will respond with something like “this is the testing service where you can record a ten-second message that we will play back for you.” So if you can hear that text, your audio is obviously working. If you can record your voice and hear the playback, you know your microphone is working!

So settle the debate once and for all and figure out whose connection is the culprit — yours or the person you’re speaking to. That, or make sure that things are working on your end before making that important call.

And for those you have taken to this whole VOIP thing, don’t forget to check out Jajah.com!

This entry is filed under Computer Stuff, Telephony and written by Peter Keung. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

9 Responses to “Test your microphone and audio on Skype by adding the contact “echo123″”

February 10th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
May C says:

There’s also Voipbuster, which I’ve heard is comparable.

Voipbuster.com

They even offer VoipbusterPro which offers a year of calls for 10 Euros, cheaper than SkypeOut.

I have SkypeOut so there’s no reason to try Voipbuster.

Or even Gizmo Project and they even have a Firefox plugin for GizmoCall for a free 5 minute or 10 minute call (for registered users). Call isn’t as good as Skype and I got the 5 mins without registering but I didn’t like having that Bonjour service running in the background so it’s canned.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Cathy says:

Hi Peter – I am eternally grateful for your speakout site and info – we’ve been using the service for almost a year now and love it. However, since you appear to be quite knowledgeable in this area I was wondering if you happened to have any info or blogs on VOIP in Canada. I am going to try it out but not really sure which company to go with and I’m getting a lot of mixed reviews in my own research.

If you have any info you care to share I’d appreciate it.

Thank you!
May 14th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Peter says:

Hi Cathy, whereabouts are you located? One company I can recommend for Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary or Edmonton is FuguPhone:

http://www.fuguphone.com/

We use them at our office and they provide professional service and a quality connection.

I can’t say I’ve done much research beyond that because we’ve been quite happy with FuguPhone and thus haven’t needed to do more research yet!
January 5th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
andrea says:

Hey thanks for the information on echo 123 really appreciate the information, now hopefully skype will be trouble free.

Regards
January 7th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
phil says:

thanks for advice it worked
August 13th, 2010 at 9:17 am
Madeleine says:

Thank you for this useful crap, it worked.
September 4th, 2010 at 7:48 am
lilia says:

when I dial +1echo123 I get a response back saying number too short. What am I doing incorrectly?

Thank you

Reply from Peter: Add the contact “echo123″ as if it were a friend’s Skype account name — not as an actual phone number.
July 29th, 2011 at 11:28 am
tarun kumar says:

Dear sir

i want detail what is reason in my head phone . sound is comming but my sound is not going

regd
tarun
September 26th, 2012 at 10:51 am
pol says:

i want detail what is reason in my head phone . sound is coming but my sound is not going