When you give a presentation, you might want to be able to have people talk through it, explaining each slide. In some cases, you won’t be able to do this in-person. If this is the circumstance, you should consider adding narration to Google Slides. Let’s look at how to add narration to Google Slides.
Guide on How to Add Narration to Google Slides
- How to record audio on Google Slides. Google Slides has no embedded tool to record a voice, but you may use any other program or online services such as Rev, 123Apps or Vocaroo. You will find links to these services below. You may also use the application "Voice recorder" on your smartphone.
Advice: open your presentation when you voice-record. It will help you remember everything and expound your thoughts more precisely. After completing the recording, make sure to save the file on your computer.How to voice record on Google docs
- Upload to Google Drive. As soon as you have created an audio file, you will have to upload it to Google. To make searching for required files easy, the files should be given names reflecting their meaning. If there are many audio files, create a separate folder in Google Drive and upload all files to it.
To upload files to Google Drive, drag the files with the mouse from on your computer ("Drag & Drop" function) or use the menu New > File Upload.Upload audio to Google Drive
- Customize the level of access to the file. If you plan to share your presentation, you have to adjust the accessibility of audio files. For this, choose an audio file in Google Drive and press the "Get Link" button in the upper menu. In the opened window, adjust the accessibility of the file for all or selected users. Set the access level "Viewer" then press "Done."
- How to add a voice-over to Google Slides. Now you are ready to insert the audio file into the presentation. To do this, move to the slide where you want the narration to be. Then, click on the Insert tab, which should cause a drop-down menu to appear. One of the menu options should be Audio. Click on this.
Insert Audio to Google slides
- Once you’ve add audio to Google Slides, you will need to locate the correct audio file in your Google Drive. You might find it easier to locate by going to the "Recent" section. Once you find the file, click on it, then click the "Select" button at the bottom of the page.
Select audio file in Google drive
- When you have done this, you will notice a speaker audio icon appear on your slide, which is the audio file. You can click it to select and reposition the icon if you want.
Add narration to Google slides
- Customize Your Audio Format Options. If you're going to do more with your audio, you will have to click on the speaker icon, and this will bring up the “Format Audio” tab at the top of your screen. Once you select this, you will be able to change the way the audio is played. For example, you might want to make it quieter. You can do this by adjusting the volume when presenting. You can also stipulate when it will start to play and how long the narration lasts.
Adding narration to Google slides
- Ways of playing audio narratives in a presentation. In Google Slides, there are two ways to play back audio files: by clicking the playback icon or with automatic start. An audio file can also either stop being played upon transfer to another slide or not stop. You may combine these functions depending on the task set before you. For instance, you can record separate files for each slide and set automatic playback when viewing a slide and completing playback upon transfer to the next slide.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to insert audio into Google Slides. Knowing these options will allow you to add a new dimension to your presentation. So, try out these techniques for yourself today.
Bonus
There are several free Google Slides templates that can be easily used with narratives. You may use these templates for your commercial and non-commercial projects.
This post uses an image from the Storyset.
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Comments
Reply
February 20, 2022
M
This was really helpful! Tysm!
Reply
April 19, 2021
william
Does this really work
Reply
April 21, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Good afternoon! Yes, this function now works in Google Slides. At which step do you have problems?
Reply
March 20, 2021
Leslie
I uploaded my file into google drive and can play it from there. It shows up in my recent folder but when I go to add it to my slides, it not available. Even in the recent folder, there is nothing. what am I doing wrong?
Reply
April 21, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Check the audio file access settings.
Reply
December 15, 2021
Macy
where do I find that?
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March 13, 2021
Tatiana
I've been using this function happily till today, when in the Insert section I didn't find audio, only video and pictures. What might have happened and what can I do to get it back?
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March 18, 2021
Victoria flores
So this does not work
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March 18, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Good afternoon! At what point do you have problems? Please tell me more. Thanks!
Reply
March 13, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Good afternoon! 1) Check that the audio file version is supported by Google Slides. 2) Check the audio file for errors. Try opening it from your Google Drive. 3) If you use multiple Google accounts: check that the account that has access to the audio file is currently active. Now this is a common problem =(.
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March 14, 2021
Robert
Good Evening Anastasiia. I think Tatiana means that Insert>Audio no longer exists. In the radiobox, the choices go from "Image" to "TextBox" to "Video". The option to add audio is simply gone.Have used it many tmes in the past as well, but today (03/13/21) I noticed this as well and am curious if this is a temporary or permanent change.
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March 16, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Good news. The "insert audio" feature is back.
Reply
March 14, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Thank you for your responses! Yesterday this bug was escalated and reproduced by Google, and the developers are currently working on a fix for the problem. I'll post the result here and update the post when I have news.
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January 23, 2021
Harriet Cleal
I have created a spelling test for my pupils who are on course learning from home. I have created two over the last two weeks which have worked fine but today no one had permission at home. I don't know what to click to sort this out. Can someone help me step -by - step how to change these permissions. TIA
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January 23, 2021
Anastasiia Miasoedova
Good afternoon, Harriet! 1. Use Google Chrome. With other browsers (especially Safari), sometimes there are problems when working with Google docs and Google Slides. 2. Save the audio files in the same folder as the presentation where they are used. 3. Give access to users at the folder level and at the level of specific files. Sometimes when you give permission at the presentation level, but not the audio files, there may be problems with playback. This should help!
Reply
October 30, 2020
Daniel LaRusso
whats the ios app?
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November 3, 2020
arem
The ios app is the default voice recording app that's pre-downloaded onto the device.
Reply
October 2, 2020
patricia
Google needs to add a feature similar to PowerPoint - simple and direct - each slide can have its own narration without having to take multiple steps to get there. Trying to keep it simple, I tried saving a PowerPoint as Google Slides - no problem but the audio did not transfer in ...
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October 6, 2020
brook
I agree!!!! That is exactly what I am looking for. I'm a music teacher trying to do CDL with littles. They cannot do the multiple steps!!
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October 1, 2020
Jose Neris
The first step is to create an audio file. Thankfully, there are multiple programs that you can use to do this. To create the audio click the Record button. In most programs this will be a red circle. You can use standard apps on your smartphone.
Reply
October 1, 2020
Jose
The first step is to create an audio file. Thankfully, there are multiple programs that you can use to do this. To create the audio click the Record button. In most programs this will be a red circle. You can use standard apps on your smartphone.
Reply
September 23, 2020
Sally Cameron
I have the audio file in the slide BUT when you click on it (in an incognito window to test) it says you have to ask for permission to hear the file. In my Google Drive all the audio files have the "all can view" permission. What am I missing??
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September 23, 2020
Максим Руденко
Hi! Very often, the problem is that the permission was granted not to a specific file, but to a folder. Try granting access to a specific file.
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September 17, 2020
Christine
I was able to add each voice mp3 to each slide, but when I play the presentation, it cuts off the recording and goes right to the next slide. It will not play the voice recording completely, then go to the next slide. How do I make this happen?
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August 29, 2020
Molly Macfarlane
Update: Only two free files per day. Not helpful for a teacher trying to make content available to remote learners.
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August 29, 2020
Molly Macfarlane
Same problem. People keep trying to convince me that you can do anything with google products and while it might be true, you usually need to use three different programs or add-ons etc. Who has time for this?Update: Only two free files per day. Not helpful for a teacher trying to make content available to remote learners.