Audio Cable: the store page is written for podcasters and teachers, but the people actually using it are students pranking each other with Chromebooks
What it is A Chrome extension that adds a virtual microphone to the mic list in Meet, Zoom web, and Discord. It mixes your voice with sound effects and music you upload, then sends the result out, with no driver install.
Why it caught on It hasn't really. It gets a handful of new users a day, from cross-links on the publisher's site, the store's related-extension recommendations, and the fact that "audio cable" is itself a search term. The most enthusiastic users are students pranking online classes from school Chromebooks.
CHow you could play it Don't copy a generic virtual mic. Copy its mic-injection method and its name-by-search-term approach, and build a class-prank soundboard for Chromebook students with louder volume and noise-cancellation bypass. Monetize with sound packs and voice-changer in-app purchases, and pull people in with prank short videos on TikTok and YouTube.
554 users · rating 4.333333333333333 (6)
Audio Cable is a Chrome extension that adds a "virtual microphone" to the mic list in web calls like Google Meet, Zoom web, and Discord. Your voice and the sound effects and music you upload get mixed into one stream sent to the other side, and nothing needs to be installed on the computer. It launched in June, has gathered 561 users in five months, and hasn't had a single update since launch. The product itself hasn't taken off. What's worth watching is how it gets a few people a day without any promotion, and the user base the reviews reveal.
Two reviews
On Aug 26 2026, a user named kyd n. jaictin left a review on the Chrome store for Audio Cable: "amazing. pranked my class and classmate with it. 10/10" Meaning they pranked their whole class and a classmate during online class. On Oct 24, another anonymous review said: "THIS IS AWESOME, but please make an option to boost mic volume and sound volume... would recommend for starter trolls with no pc". This user wants the volume turned up further and recommends it for "beginner pranksters with no computer."
"No computer" here means a Chromebook, or a school computer where software can't be installed. The standard way to get sound into a call used to be installing a virtual sound card driver like VB-Cable, and school Chromebooks can't install drivers.
But the users the store page describes are a different crowd: streamers, podcasters, remote teams, language teachers, accessibility use cases. Out of 6 reviews, the three that describe a use case are two pranks and one "add funny sound effects for friends in Meet" (Jun 10, the day it launched).
What it is
It's made by DAMIKO INC, incorporated in Florida, under the brand AI Webcam Effects. Its core business is selling video and audio AI effects SDKs to developers. The company has a dozen-plus extensions in the Chrome store. The biggest, Noise Cancelling App, has 40k users, and AI Webcam Effects has 30k. Audio Cable ranks second-to-last in that group.
Technically it's not hard. The extension overrides the browser interfaces that list and access microphones, ahead of page scripts. When a page asks "which microphones are there," the list now includes an "Audio Cable Virtual Mic." Choose it, and the other side receives a stream mixing the real mic with the effects you triggered, with all mixing done locally in the browser via Web Audio. So one codebase works across every web call. The cost is that it requires permission to "read and change all your data on websites," and the privacy disclosure on the store page mentions handling "location."
| Metric | Sources | |
|---|---|---|
| users | 561 | Chrome Web Store, 11-07 |
| Rating | 4.33 stars, 6 ratings | Chrome Web Store, 11-07 |
| Listing / versions | 2026-06-10,0.2.2, no updates since | Chrome Web Store |
| User curve | 9-01 223 → 10-08 424 → 11-06 549 | extops.dev |
| Paid | No, the store doesn't list in-app purchases | Chrome Web Store |
Did it grow?
It did, but slowly. From its June launch to Sep 1 it had only 223 users, under 3 a day. After that it added 3 to 5 a day, and over the last 30 days, +139 (extops.dev). Across more than thirty readings it rose steadily with no spikes. Only the week of Sep 21 to 27 was faster, going from 317 to 386. I couldn't find the cause. The timing lines up with a month after North American school started, which fits the student users, but that's only an inference.
Where users come from
It has no promotion. Nobody has mentioned it on X in about four months, and I found nothing on Reddit, Product Hunt, or TikTok. The few people who do arrive come from three sources:
- Cross-links from the parent site: webcameffects.app has a dedicated landing page for it. The footer "Try other plugins" links to several other extensions for recording, meeting capture, and noise cancellation. The publisher's Facebook groups have also posted its store link.
- The store's related recommendations: it's recommended alongside Voxify, various Chrome voice changers, and Browser Audio Mixer.
- The name is the search term: "virtual audio cable" is already what people search for when looking for a virtual sound card. Searching in English for "browser extension to play sound effects into Google Meet without installing VB-Cable" puts its store page as the first result.
Where the money comes from
No money. The extension is free, has no in-app purchases, and doesn't funnel to a parent product subscription. The $4.95/month subscription on the official site belongs to AI Webcam Effects and is unrelated to this extension. For the company, it looks more like they took existing browser audio tech and listed it as a standalone product on the side.
Who it's competing with
At least five or six companies have been doing "sending sound into web calls" over the past 2026 year:
| Competitors | Scale (Chrome Web Store, 11-07) | How it differs from Audio Cable |
|---|---|---|
| Voxify - Voice Changer for Chrome | 3,000 users / 17 rating, launched in April, has in-app purchases, 11-01 still being updated | A browser virtual mic that combines voice changing with a soundboard, already charging money |
| Meet Soundboard | 3,000 / 4 rating | Only Google Meet, with built-in sound effects |
| Facecam | 1,000, launched in October | Face swap, voice changer, and soundboard all in one, with lots of "soundboard for X" landing pages spread across the web |
| Custom Soundboard, MyInstants Soundboard, and others | A few hundred to 1,000 | Mostly just play sound effects on the page, not necessarily into the mic |
| Browser Audio Mixer | 358 | Focused on mic quality and effects |
| MemeBox | 90, launched in October | Meme sound effects plus voice changing, positioned as entertainment |
| VB-CABLE, Voicemod, and other desktop software | The industry default | Works with all apps, but requires driver installation and admin rights |
| Meet's shared-tab audio, Discord's built-in soundboard | All users | Free, but requires screen sharing, or only works inside Discord |
Audio Cable isn't the first, and it isn't the biggest. Among these, it's the only one that calls itself a "virtual audio cable"; the others call themselves soundboards or voice changers. The later ones have more users, because they're more fun (voice changing, memes).
If it were you
C: the technique and naming approach are worth learning, but copying it isn't worth the effort. It has 561 users after five months. Voxify, which is more fun, has only 3,000 after half a year, so this category's ceiling is visible. At least five or six have launched in this space this year, and its real users are students, who don't pay.
Who it suits: indie developers who can write Chrome extensions and want a small project to practice on and grow users; or those who already have a set of extensions and want another one that cross-promotes the others.
Who it doesn't suit: anyone hoping to make money from it. Its users are students pranking classmates, who have very low willingness to pay. Trying to charge streamers and podcasters means competing with Voicemod and VB-Cable on desktop, and losing.
How to build it: if you do build something, don't make a "generic virtual mic"; make what the people in its review section want. A class-prank soundboard for Chromebook students: ship with a pack of meme sounds, let the volume go higher (the October review asks for exactly this), and bypass the meeting software's noise cancellation in one click (the store page itself admits Meet's noise cancellation filters out music and sound effects). Put the money-making parts in sound packs and voice changing, and use in-app purchases the way Voxify does. The mic-injection technique can be copied directly.
How to get users: use the search term as the name. Audio Cable used "audio cable"; you could use "soundboard for Google Meet" or "Chromebook soundboard." Then make short prank videos about "online class pranks" on TikTok and YouTube, where this audience is.
When to move: there's no clear window. The competitors are multiplying month by month. If you're going to do it, launch before the spring semester starts in January 2027.
What would mean we read it wrong: ① Voxify or Meet Soundboard passes 10k users within a month or two, meaning the demand is bigger than it looks and worth taking seriously; ② Google tightens the extension mic-modification path on Chromebooks, or school admin consoles broadly block these extensions, and this route is closed; ③ Audio Cable suddenly starts updating and adding paid features, meaning its publisher sees data we don't.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one VB-CABLE / Voicemeeter Other Years ago The industry-default virtual sound card approach A desktop driver that works across all apps, but requires driver installation and admin rights; Audio Cable only works in the browser and needs no install Voicemod Other Years ago Tens of millions (public claim, unverified) Desktop voice changer plus soundboard, heavily entertainment-oriented Voxify - Voice Changer for Chrome Chrome 2026-04-17 3,000 users / 17 rating, with in-app purchases A browser virtual mic that combines voice changing with a soundboard, already paid and still updated; Audio Cable doesn't change voices and focuses on mixing in your own audio files Meet Soundboard Chrome 2025-06-22 3,000 users / 4 reviews Only Google Meet, with a built-in soundboard; Audio Cable works across sites Facecam(facecam.ai) Chrome 2026-10-06 Extension with 1,000 users, with lots of SEO landing pages on the web AI face swap, voice changer, and soundboard all in one, scaling through SEO MemeBox: Meme Soundboard & Voice Changer for Calls Chrome 2026-10-06 90 users Meme sound effects plus voice changing, positioned as entertainment Browser Audio Mixer Chrome 2026-03-24 358 users Mic EQ and effects, can bypass noise cancellation, focused on audio quality Patch(tonal.fm)+ Patch for Chrome Other 2026 Unknown A Mac app that sends any tab's audio into a system-level virtual mic, usable by desktop meeting clients too Meet tab-audio sharing / Zoom computer-audio sharing / Discord's built-in Soundboard Big-company features Already there All users Requires screen sharing, or only works inside Discord - Where users come from
- Verified Cross-links from the parent site: a dedicated landing page at webcameffects.app/en/extensions/audio-cable/, interlinked with sibling extensions; the publisher's Facebook groups have posted the store link
- Verified Store related recommendations: under Related in the store, it's cross-recommended with Voxify, VoiceBender, and Browser Audio Mixer; Voxify's detail page ranks it #2 (our related table)
- Verified Long-tail search / SEO (name borrows "virtual audio cable"): Jina search for 'play sound effects into google meet without VB-Cable browser extension' — result #1 is the store page, #4 is the official landing page
- Inferred Social, creators, paid acquisition: zero mentions on X over 120 days; no Reddit, TikTok, or PH traces found, no paid acquisition found
Why does Audio Cable (Chrome extension) get any traction? Short answer: it hasn't really taken off yet
- Store page: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/audio-cable/fmcjiehgcbkccml…
- Publisher: DAMIKO INC (Hallandale Beach, FL). Brand AI Webcam Effects / Effects SDK, site webcameffects.app
- Research date: 2026-11-06
One line
A browser-only "virtual mic mixer." The extension hooks getUserMedia / enumerateDevices before page scripts run, adds an "Audio Cable Virtual Mic" to the mic list in Meet, Zoom web, Discord, and Teams, and mixes your real mic with uploaded sound effects and music in real time. No VB-Cable-style driver install.
Verdict
It hasn't broken out yet. Launched 2026-06-10, five months in, 561 users (per our database, 2026-11-07), 6 ratings; version 0.2.2, not updated once since launch (the store page shows Updated June 9, 2026). Growth is a steady trickle, about +3~5 a day, with no outside spike. It's a side project from a small publisher with a matrix of 17 extensions and a few hundred thousand users. Traffic comes from three places: cross-promotion from the parent site, the store's related-app recommendations, and long-tail search. The recall card says it has "almost no pure-browser competitors in its store category". That doesn't hold: the same feature is already covered by Voxify (3,000 users), Meet Soundboard (3,000), MemeBox, Facecam and Browser Audio Mixer. The first two have 5 times its user count.
Data
| Source | Date | users | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| extops.dev, 90-day curve | 2026-09-01 | 223 | — |
| extops.dev | 2026-10-08 | 424 | 5 |
| extops.dev | 2026-11-06 | 549 | 6 |
| Our database, chromestore item_snap | 2026-11-01 | 554 | 6 |
| Our database, chromestore item_snap | 2026-11-07 | 561 | 6 |
- From 9/1 to 11/6 it grew +326, and +30 over the last 139 days (extops.dev/extensions/fmcjiehgcbkccmllmbcdjiadnggfhhap). All 34 readings trend up slowly, no spikes. The slope was steeper at the end of September: from 9/21 to 9/27,317 it reached 386, +69 in one week, cause unknown.
- From 6/10 to 9/1 it only gathered 223 users, around 2.7 a day in the first three months.
- The store doesn't list in-app purchases, and the extension itself charges nothing. The official pricing page ($4.95/month, or $38.95 billed yearly, about $3.25/month) belongs to the parent product AI Webcam Effects, not Audio Cable (webcameffects.app/en/pricing/).
- Permissions: read and change all websites (needed to inject getUserMedia). The privacy disclosure lists handling of "Location."
Publisher matrix (our database chromestore, website_domain = webcameffects.app)
| Extension | users | Launched |
|---|---|---|
| Noise Cancelling App | 40,000 | 2024-12 |
| AI Webcam Effects + Recorder | 30,000 | 2023-01 |
| Remote Desktop (deskroll.com, same developer DANIL KORSKY) | 20,000 | 2025-03 |
| Audio Recorder | 8,000 | 2025-05 |
| LookGood Live | 6,000 | 2024-12 |
| Record Meetings on Zoom/Teams/Meet | 5,000 | 2025-05 |
| Camera PiP / AI Noise Cancellation For Listeners / Background Noise Remover / Phone as Webcam | 1,000–3,000 | 2024–2026 |
| Audio Cable | 561 | 2026-06 |
| AI Writer | 254 | 2026-02 |
The core business is the Effects SDK (effectssdk.ai), which sells AI video and audio effects SDKs to developers. The extensions are the SDK's consumer-facing outlet. Audio Cable doesn't use AI, only Web Audio mixing, and looks like the team packaged its existing browser audio injection as a standalone product. Within this matrix it ranks second to last.
Competitors
| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How Audio Cable differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VB-Audio VB-CABLE / Voicemeeter | Desktop drivers | Many years ago | The industry default; YouTube tutorials routinely get hundreds of thousands of views | Requires a driver install and admin rights, but works in every app. Audio Cable only works in the browser; the upside is no driver install |
| Voicemod / Clownfish desktop | Desktop | Years | Voicemod is a voice changer and soundboard with tens of millions of users (public reporting, not verified this round) | Desktop-wide virtual mic, heavily entertainment-oriented |
| Voxify - Voice Changer for Chrome | Chrome | 2026-04-17 | 3,000 users / 17 ratings, lists in-app purchases, still updated as of 11-01 | Also a browser virtual mic, bundling voice changing with a soundboard, and already paid. Audio Cable doesn't change voices; it leads with "mix in any local audio file" |
| Meet Soundboard | Chrome | 2025-06-22 | 3,000 / 4 rating | Meet only, built-in soundboard. Audio Cable works across sites and lets you upload your own files |
| MemeBox: Meme Soundboard & Voice Changer for Calls | Chrome | 2026-10-06 | 90 | Meme sound effects plus voice changing, positioned as entertainment |
| Facecam: AI Virtual Camera & Voice Changer (facecam.ai, with a free soundboard on the web) | Chrome + web | 2026-10-06 | 1,000 | AI face swap, voice changing, and soundboard bundle; heavy SEO with lots of "soundboard for X" landing pages |
| Browser Audio Mixer | Chrome | 2026-03-24 | 358 | Mic EQ and effects, can bypass noise suppression, focused on audio quality processing |
| Custom Soundboard / Parakeet Soundboard / MyInstants Soundboard | Chrome | 2025–2026 | 441–1,000 | Mostly just soundboards that often don't feed the mic |
| Patch(tonal.fm)+ Patch for Chrome | Mac app + Chrome | 2026 (guide published 10-09) | Unknown | Routes audio from any tab into a virtual mic on the Mac, usable in desktop meeting clients too. Its FAQ directly names "some extensions only create a virtual mic for web calls" |
| Google Meet "share tab audio" / Zoom "share computer sound" / Discord's built-in Soundboard | Big-company features | Already there | All users | Requires screen sharing to use; Discord's soundboard only works inside Discord |
| Blerp | Chrome | 2023 | 50,000 | Livestream tips and sound alerts, not mic mixing |
Take: This space has no shortage of competitors. In the narrow niche of "browser extension as virtual mic," Audio Cable isn't the first or the biggest. It's the only one that frames the product as an "Audio Cable / virtual audio cable replacement" rather than a "soundboard" or "voice changer."
Growth tactics (evidence)
- Cross-links from the parent site (confirmed): webcameffects.app has a dedicated landing page for it at
/en/extensions/audio-cable/. The footer "Try other plugins" links to Audio Recorder, Record Meetings, and Noise Cancelling, and they link back. The publisher's Facebook group (facebook.com/groups/webcameffects) has also posted the Audio Cable store link (visible in Jina search snippets). - Store related recommendations (confirmed): The store pairs it with Voxify, Voice Changer, VoiceBender, and Browser Audio Mixer (store page Related). In our database's related table, Voxify's detail page ranks Audio Cable #2. It also shows up in the parent AI Webcam Effects' related recommendations, and vice versa.
- Long-tail search / SEO (partly confirmed): Searching "play sound effects into google meet without VB-Cable browser extension" puts its store page first in Jina results and the official landing page fourth. The name directly borrows the "virtual audio cable" search habit.
- Other: no posts mentioning it on X in 120 days (x-radar). No traces on Reddit, HN, Product Hunt, or TikTok. No paid acquisition found.
Why it grows (the one part that does)
- The pain point is real: people want sound effects and music in web meetings without screen sharing, and can't install drivers (work laptops, Chromebooks, Macs where VB-Cable is a hassle). Requests like "Virtual Audio Cable doesn't work in Google Meet" are common on OBS forums and Reddit.
- The name is the search term. Users looking for an "audio cable" find it through the store and Google, which catches part of the long-tail traffic.
- The "Established publisher" badge plus traffic from the parent site gave it a starting pool (the extops page shows the badge).
Why it hasn't grown
- Zero updates since launch, no promotion, and the team's energy goes to the SDK and the flagship extensions.
- Free, with no funnel into the parent product's subscription. For the publisher it's filler.
- The competition is either more fun (voice changing, meme sounds) or more complete (Patch works in desktop clients).
- Built-in meeting noise suppression filters out non-voice audio, which the store listing itself admits, so the experience is degraded.
Visibility
Still unknown: no public revenue, no press or X coverage, 561 users.
Copycats
No one is copying it specifically. But 2026 is a crowded year here: Voxify (April), Browser Audio Mixer (March), Custom Soundboard (February), and MemeBox and Facecam (October) are all doing "send sound into the call mic."
What to borrow
- Using getUserMedia to build a pure-browser virtual device means one codebase covers every web meeting tool, no driver install, and works for enterprise and Chromebook users.
- Naming an extension after a desktop tool (Audio Cable) catches search traffic from people who don't want to install drivers.
- Matrix distribution: landing pages on the parent site, cross-links between extensions, and store related recommendations can bring in a few new users a day for a new extension with zero ad spend.
- The cautionary side: no updates, no payments, no promotion. Five months and 500 users is the ceiling for that path.
Unknowns
- The reason for the late-September acceleration (possibly a store featuring slot or a parent-site redesign) is unverified.
- Whether the parent extension directly promotes it (in-extension popup or prompts) is unverified; I didn't inspect the package.
- Voicemod's user numbers come from public claims and weren't verified this round.