Decibel Meter Widget

Decibel Meter Widget is a sound level meter for the room you are in. It looks like the handheld meter it is named after: a yellow case, a green display and real keys.

Every reading sits next to a sound you know: a quiet library at 30 dB, a quiet office at 40, light rain at 50, a vacuum cleaner at 70, a motorcycle at 100 and a thunderclap at 120. A line under the meter says it in words, like "62 dB · Normal conversation". The meter glows amber from 70 dB and red from 85 dB, the level where hearing is at risk after 8 hours.

The lowest, average and loudest level of the last 10 minutes sit under the meter. The average is the energy average, the same one a real meter shows.

Choose A weighting, which hears like people do, or C, for music and machines. Click the meter to hold a reading, show the maximum or light the display. To match a reference meter, hold both in the same spot, choose Calibrate and type what the reference reads.

Pick a level: 60, 70, 80, 85, 90 or 100 dB. After 10 seconds above it, the meter shows a red plate and Windows tells you: "It is too loud in here."

Choose the phone button and scan the code with your phone's camera. Your phone opens the same meter in its browser, with no app to install and no account. Take it next to the speaker or across the room, and the reading shows on your PC at the same time. Only the sound level leaves your phone, ten numbers a second. No audio is recorded or sent. It works on the same Wi-Fi or over the internet, encrypted end to end, and the phone keeps its own calibration.

The widget is the same meter lying on its side, with its display, the peak and a color bar. Keep it on the desktop behind your windows or above them, at any size from 70% to 150%. Turn the widget off and the app window opens at startup instead.

Readings are estimates from a computer or phone microphone. Calibrate against a real meter when accuracy matters. No sound is ever recorded.