How to Insert Audio Voiceovers and Narration in Google Slides

Creating an effective presentation often requires more than just visual aids. If you are distributing a Google Slides deck for self-guided training, creating a kiosk display for a trade show, or sharing a lesson with remote students who missed the live class, static text on a slide is rarely enough to keep the audience engaged. Adding audio—specifically, a recorded voiceover narration where you explain the concepts on each slide—can dramatically improve comprehension and retention. While Google Slides does not have a built-in microphone recording tool directly inside the application, it does offer robust support for embedding and controlling audio files hosted in your Google Drive.

Step 1: Recording and Preparing Your Audio Files

Because Google Slides cannot record audio directly, you must use a separate application on your computer or phone to record your narration.

1. Use a free recording app (like Voice Memos on Mac/iOS, Sound Recorder on Windows, or a web-based tool like Vocaroo).
2. Record the narration for your first slide. Crucially, you should record a separate, short audio file for each individual slide, rather than one massive 20-minute track. This makes syncing the audio to the visuals much easier.
3. Save the files in a compatible format. Google Slides strictly requires audio files to be in either .mp3 or .wav format. (If your app saves as .m4a, you must use a free online converter to change it to .mp3).

Step 2: Uploading the Audio to Google Drive

Google Slides can only embed audio files that are already hosted within the Google Workspace ecosystem.

1. Open a new tab and navigate to Google Drive.
2. Create a new folder named “Presentation Audio” to keep your files organized.
3. Drag and drop your .mp3 or .wav files into this folder to upload them.
4. Important Permission Step: By default, files uploaded to Google Drive are private. If you share your presentation with someone else, they will see an error instead of hearing the audio. You must right-click the “Presentation Audio” folder, select Share, and change the general access setting from “Restricted” to “Anyone with the link can view.”

Step 3: Inserting the Audio into Your Slides

Now that your files are hosted and accessible, you can attach them to the presentation.

1. Return to your Google Slides presentation and click on the specific slide where you want the first narration to play.
2. Click the Insert tab on the top menu bar.
3. Select Audio from the dropdown menu.
4. A window will appear showing files from your Google Drive. Ensure the “Recent” or “My Drive” tab is selected, locate the audio file you uploaded for this specific slide, and click Select.
5. A small, grey speaker icon will appear in the middle of your slide. Click and drag this icon to a corner of the slide where it won’t obscure your text or images.

Step 4: Formatting the Playback Behavior

By default, the audience must manually click the speaker icon to hear the audio. For a seamless presentation, you likely want the narration to start automatically when the slide appears.

1. Click the speaker icon on your slide to select it.
2. Click the Format options button on the toolbar (or right-click the icon and select it). A sidebar will open on the right side of the screen.
3. In the “Audio playback” section, look at the “Start playing” options. Change the selection from “On click” to “Automatically”.
4. (Optional) Check the box for Hide icon when presenting. This makes the ugly grey speaker invisible during the actual slideshow, creating a much cleaner, professional appearance while the audio plays silently in the background.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every slide in your presentation to build a fully narrated, automated slideshow.