Unable to use microphone (affects Duolingo, Google Translate, and other sites)

[MGRussell]

Latest status (this comment edited by @bsclifton)

This feature relies on a Speech API key that we would need to create and pay for on a per-use basis. As captured below, @tomlowenthal has looked at this.

At the moment, this is on hold. We have some other features requiring this speech to text API also. But we haven't taken any action as creating a token and installing will have a cost associated with it.

Original issue details by @MGRussell

This issue was previously opened in the browser-laptop repo here and was archived without resolution with numerous OS/versions chiming in. I am reopening it here, and reporting with Windows 7 with Brave Version 0.61.51 Chromium: 73.0.3683.75 (Official Build) (64-bit). This may be a related issue which mentions that Webspeech API is disabled within Brave.

Description

The browser does not function properly with Duolingo. The site asks for permission to use the microphone and everything seems to work fine, but it seems no input is ever being sent from brave to the site. The site only officially supports chrome and so this is something that would need to be remedied on Brave's end, if the browser is to be capable of using Duolingo.

Steps to Reproduce

The browser fails on any tests from Duolingo that asks the user to send voice data, 100% of the time.

Website problems only:

The issue does not resolve when disabling brave shields. This issue is not present on the latest version of Chrome.

[honza-zidek]

Hey guys, for me it's a show stopper for Brave! Please do something with it - the issue was first reported on 03.10.2016 in #4476, so 2.5 years ago!

[rebron]

@honza-zidek Feedback noted.

[Brave-Matt]

+1 -- a couple users reporting on community:
https://community.brave.com/t/twitter-videos-duolingo-audio/61126/6

[estebanhst]

I have the same problem with Brave
Version 0.64.77 Chromium: 74.0.3729.169 (Official Build) (64-bit)
on Mac OS Mojave 10.14.4

Please, as some users have said, this is an issue that has persisted for years. There is no problem with the website while using Chrome.

[gnarfle]

I've also noticed this. On mac weirdly when I start a question on duolingo it instantly fails. It's not like it doesn't get the audio, it just somehow immediately marks it as wrong before I can even speak. Works fine in chrome.

[bsclifton]

Trying to reproduce here - I've created an account (bsclifton if anyone wants to add me) and am working through Spanish exercises 😄Still haven't hit a microphone one, but when I do I have some thoughts on what to try

[bsclifton]

I'm on macOS Mojave 10.14.5 and was shown this the first time a microphone prompt came up (after the web notification was shown)

After clicking OK and then clicking the microphone icon as reported here, it fails instantly:

[honza-zidek]

That's good that you reproduced it, after several years since the error was first reported (the microphone non-working in Brave was first reported on 03.10.2016 in #4476). Now there might be a chance someone will address the issue :) (Well, I admit it is a sarcarsm... but I somehow cannot understand how such a bug could have been ignored by the Brave team for so long time).

[bsclifton]

@honza-zidek I'm sorry about that - there are many issues we personally find important and would like to fix (like this one), but it's all a matter of relative prioritization and having enough time ☹️

After reproducing, I tried toggling a few flags on brave://flags, but didn't notice any difference. @honza-zidek can you confirm: you're supposed to press (and hold) the microphone button and then let go after you finish saying the word?

That is how I tried it and it did not work. I verified that the site has proper permissions in settings.

Just today, we accepted a pull request by @jumde to disable field trials (we were using a test config, which is less than ideal) #4551. Our next Nightly build will include that patch and I'm interested if that has any impact. Will try that and report back

[honza-zidek]

you're supposed to press (and hold) the microphone button and then let go after you finish saying the word?

You are supposed to press the microphone, then release it, then say the phrase.
If I remember correctly, I think the way you describe works in Mondly. You may also try creating an account in Mondly or Memrise or other language learning app - they also have some speaking exercises.

The easiest way to try it is using Chrome for Duolingo.

However, I think that it is a more general issue. As I understand from #4476, microphone has never worked in Brave, has it? It seems not only Duolingo specific issue.

[bsclifton]

@honza-zidek good call - just tried and verified in Chrome...

Click once is supposed to enable it- you say the words, then push stop when done.

Microphone definitely works (in Brave) in other situations. For example, Google Hangouts worked even in the old Electron-fork browser. Will report back any other findings 😄

[bsclifton]

Confirmed that with the new Nightly (0.68.2), this still does not work ☹️ Will need some more investigation

[simonhong]

Below test script throws network error. I think this is related with Google speech API.

var recognizer = new webkitSpeechRecognition();
recognizer.lang = "en-US";
recognizer.onerror = function(event) {
  console.log(event.error)
};
recognizer.start();

[simonhong]

Recording in duoringo and voice search in google.com give same below log. Aborting with error SpeechRecognitionErrorCode::kNetwork

[25606:40711:0626/155300.097507:VERBOSE1:speech_recognizer_impl.cc(542)] Device parameters: format: 1, channel_layout: 2, channels: 1, sample_rate: 48000, frames_per_buffer: 128, effects: 64, mic_positions: , hw_cap.min_frames_per_buffer: 128, hw_cap.max_frames_per_buffer: 4096
[25606:40711:0626/155300.097612:VERBOSE1:speech_recognizer_impl.cc(566)] SpeechRecognizerImpl starting audio capture.
[25606:40711:0626/155300.097642:VERBOSE1:speech_recognizer_impl.cc(586)] SRI::output_parameters: format: 1, channel_layout: 2, channels: 1, sample_rate: 16000, frames_per_buffer: 1600, effects: 0, mic_positions:
[25606:40711:0626/155300.097676:VERBOSE1:speech_recognizer_impl.cc(615)] SRI::input_parameters: format: 1, channel_layout: 2, channels: 1, sample_rate: 48000, frames_per_buffer: 4800, effects: 64, mic_positions: , hw_cap.min_frames_per_buffer: 128, hw_cap.max_frames_per_buffer: 4096
[25606:40711:0626/155300.548512:VERBOSE1:speech_recognition_engine.cc(380)] Downstream complete success: 0 response_code: 403
[25606:40711:0626/155300.548606:VERBOSE1:speech_recognition_engine.cc(841)] Aborting with error SpeechRecognitionErrorCode::kNetwork
[25606:40711:0626/155300.550244:VERBOSE1:speech_recognizer_impl.cc(835)] SpeechRecognizerImpl closing audio capturer source.
[25606:40711:0626/155300.551116:VERBOSE1:speech_recognizer_impl.cc(729)] SpeechRecognizerImpl canceling recognition.

SpeechRecognitionEngine interacts with google service -https://www.google.com/speech-api/full-duplex/v1 for speech recognition.
See https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/content/browser/speech/speech_recognition_engine.cc?sq=package:chromium&dr=C&g=0&l=34

cc @rebron I think this issue needs google's speech recognition service.

[bsclifton]

Per discussion with @simonhong, this is also failing in Chromium

To use this, you need to request keys:
https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys

And we'd want to proxy the call on our side, of course

[rebron]

cc: @tomlowenthal for api-key

[simonhong]

@jumde Whenever when user tries to use voice recognition service such as clicking mic button in google.com, brave will send request to google service - https://cs.chromium.org/chromium/src/content/browser/speech/speech_recognition_engine.cc?sq=package:chromium&dr=C&g=0&l=34

[tomocrafter]

same problem here, I cannot use microphone with Duolingo, Google Translate on Brave Browser.

[LeeNPham]

PLEASE @bbondy SAVE US, I really am looking to see you and your team resolve this issue so that my applications are able to provide speech recognition to its users.

P.S. if y'all are hiring at all, I live in the Portland area and would love to join your team as an entry level engineer!
I've been using Brave for probably 3 years now.

[Saoiray]

P.S. if y'all are hiring at all, I live in the Portland area and would love to join your team as an entry level engineer!
I've been using Brave for probably 3 years now.

https://brave.com/careers/

[LeeNPham]

@Saoiray thank you, I did already try to apply though and haven't heard back from the team yet, but after trying to figure out why my speech recognition feature wasn't working brought me here, maybe this will be a good way for me to get their attention :)

[derde]

One of the problems that appears to affect my installation is that pulseaudio crashes, and Brave (sometimes) doesn't know to reconnect when pulseaudio restarts: the audio goes away, and the error is then persistent. This doesn't explain to me why the microphone disconnects permanently and pre-emptively, but I think there may be some interesting debugging to be got by killing pulseaudio:

ps uaxw | grep '[p]ulseaudio' | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill

[iefremov]

This is in progress, we have a working prototype.

[B4xAbhishek]

To reproduce the Issue
open chatGPT and install "Voice Control for ChatGPT" ad try to use the extension
this fails 100% of the time.

[derde]

I think that brave loses connection to pulseaudio when pulseaudio crashes. Sound output is able to recover, but sound input is not able to recover. Restarting brave makes things that were broken work again. meet.google.com says it can't find the microphone, but it changes its mind after a restart:

Much as google meet says "speaker not found", other applications are able to play sounds.

After shutting down brave and starting it up again, microphone input is available:

(Sorry, I seem to have said this all before. At least there are pictures now. Hope it helps.)

[robiot]

This would be nice

[PlaidRadish]

This is not an urgent comment, but a clarification of comments above by @ryanbr @ballII and @j0hncc ...
It is true that Opera, Vivaldi, Chromium, and other Chromium-based browsers that are NOT Chrome no longer support the mic use of Google Voice/Assistant just like Brave, but the comment that it works in Safari is incorrect. It failed in 2020 and 2021, and as of 2022, Safari completely removed it from their browser.

However, I agree with @heapifyman that it is probably due to some issue where Google requires other browser developers to pay a subscription to host the voice server through their browser interface. I have not been able to check Microsoft Edge, but I'd love to see that screenshot, here, for posterity...

[doctor82]

...I have not been able to check Microsoft Edge, but I'd love to see that screenshot, here, for posterity...

It works fine in Edge.

[PlaidRadish]

Awesome. Thanks for adding to the collection, @doctor82 ! BTW, Edge is still built on Chromium, right?

If so, that further establishes the opinion of @heapifyman that Google is just making a money/power/position problem out if it, PROBABLY even overcharging unless they're in bed with your company or organization.

That's going to make it completely off-limits for Brave for a while, if so.

[Saoiray]

It works fine in Edge

That's not true. The button is there, but it doesn't work.

[doctor82]

It works fine in Edge

That's not true. The button is there, but it doesn't work.

Anyone with edge browser on windows 11 can confirm that it works. I don't work for windows / edge. I have no motive to lie.

[PlaidRadish]

Hm, conflicting responses regarding Edge...
Could we get details? Are those of you running Edge browsers running it in Windows? Or, perhaps using one of the macOS, Linux, or even the Windows legacy version?
If on a Windows computer, then is it 10, 11, or something older? Or perhaps a beta?

[Saoiray]

Anyone with edge browser on windows 11

---

As I kept testing, I noticed the icon in the search bar of the normal one was saying access denied, even though I had given it permission for the microphone. It made no sense to me. After I plugged in a headset instead, it finally worked. So that's the difference there.

---

As to Brave:

Still shows no internet connection.

[PlaidRadish]

Ah. So, it's safe -- not accurate, just safe ;-) -- to assume that the Microsoft beast has paid their dues to the almighty Google machine, whilst other minority browser developers have not (which would, of course, coincide with Brave's developers, per @MGRussell, saying they can't justify the cost at this time).

The question then is, "why would Google surrender potential ad revenue by limiting the number of Google Assistant users to a specific cadre of browsers?" There's gotta be something more pressing than collecting browser developer dues... that's not fiscally advantageous.

[bitcoinmeetups]

I second this. Would be nice and important to be able to use voice input in Brave Browser on desktop. Kind of expected.

I can use voice input if I use a browser extension and visit bing search in mobile view mode. But it doesn't work in desktop mode. So far that's the only site where I have been able to do voice input with brave browser desktop version.

Brave, Linux.

[MarArMar]

Up

[deondon]

+1 for this issue with Google Doc Dication Feature.
It's the only thing I still use Chrome for everything else is now Brave.
There was an audio issue with clicking that has been fixed so thanks for that!

[aploftus]

any movement on this? this is a huge accessibility hindrance for voice-to-text.

[sleazypikachu]

has anyone made any progess with this?

[AdalDesign]

For the sake of communicating the importance of this, here's my personal, friendly bump. Thank you all for your hard work!

[iefremov]

@AdalDesign we are actively working on it. Hopefully will soon start testing in Nightly.