All audio sent through Around is normally processed to make voices sound as clear as possible while removing all other background noise. This is great for conversations, but can make sharing any other audio (like music!) sound muffled and distorted.

With our Share System Audio feature, you can bypass our signal processing and send high quality audio from another device or application to everyone else in your meeting. Now you can DJ your next Friday happy hour, play smooth jazz during all-hands, or get into a groove in your next working session. Get creative and let us know what you come up with! 🎶

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Install a Virtual Loopback Cable

Since Around is able to share the audio of any input device or microphone on your system, the first step is to get the audio you want to play to appear as a "virtual microphone.”

The easiest way is to use a virtual audio cable that appears as both a microphone and a speaker, and makes any audio you play to it appear as a microphone.

Around provides a loopback driver for Mac OS which can be automatically installed via the desktop app when starting Share System Audio. For other operating systems, we've found VB-Cable to be a good cross-platform option.

Start Share System Audio

  1. Ensure your chosen loopback method is set up. If you're installing a virtual loopback cable for the first time, you may need to restart your computer after installation in order to start Share System Audio.
  2. Verify Allow outgoing audio sharing is enabled in Lobby > Preferences > Audio. This is enabled by default.

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<aside> đź’ˇ If Automatic audio sharing device selection is enabled, Around will look for an appropriate loopback device automatically, and you will not see any listed devices when using Share System Audio in the next step (3). Disable this preference if you want to specify your shared device.

</aside>

  1. Once in a meeting, click the Vibes & Games button (▶️) and select Share System Audio. If Automatic audio sharing device selection is disabled – select the loopback cable you're using (e.g. Around Loopback or VB-Cable).

    <aside> 💡 Because there's zero processing going on between your input device and the meeting, you can cause echo for everyone. Ensuring that you don't select a live microphone – or set both the speaker in Around and shared device to the same thing – is critical.

    </aside>

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  1. The Share System Audio button will light up red and your avatar will show a status icon indicating that your audio is being shared with everyone in the meeting. If someone else in the meeting is sharing audio, their **avatar will also show a status icon.