The Audio Ducking Annoyance
Windows 11 includes a feature called “Communications Activity” (commonly known as audio ducking). The operating system constantly monitors your software to see if you are placing or receiving a voice call—such as joining a Zoom meeting, answering a Microsoft Teams call, or jumping into a Discord voice channel. The moment Windows detects a call, it automatically drops the volume of all other applications (like Spotify, YouTube, or your video game) by a massive 80%. While intended to ensure you can hear the person speaking, it is incredibly jarring if you are intentionally listening to background music while chatting.
How to Disable Automatic Volume Lowering
You can turn off this audio ducking feature entirely within the classic Windows Control Panel, forcing Windows to leave your volume sliders exactly where you set them, regardless of who is calling.
1. Click the Start button, type Control Panel, and press Enter to open the legacy settings app.
2. In the top-right corner, change the “View by” option from Category to Large icons.
3. Find and click on Sound.
4. A small window will pop up with four tabs at the top. Click the far-right tab labelled Communications.
5. You will see a section titled “When Windows detects communications activity.”
6. By default, it is likely set to “Reduce the volume of other sounds by 80%.”
7. Select the bottom radio button: Do nothing.
8. Click Apply, then click OK.
Managing App-Specific Ducking
If you set Windows to “Do nothing” but your game audio still drops when you join a Discord call, the culprit is the application itself, not Windows. Discord has its own independent audio ducking feature called “Attenuation.” To fix this, open Discord Settings, go to “Voice & Video,” scroll down to the Attenuation slider, and drag it all the way down to 0%.