[nerdsniper]

Wouldn't you need to rewire the headphones? Headphones use a 3-pin TRS whereas a 4-pin TRRS plug is used when you add a microphone. Regardless if the 4-pin is CTIA or OMTP, it's generally only going to get shorted to ground if a 3-pin TRS plug is plugged into a 4-pin TRRS socket, or if a 4-pin TRRS plug is plugged into a 3-pin TRS socket.

Diagram: https://i.sstatic.net/8rSD2.jpg

[lightedman]

"Wouldn't you need to rewire the headphones?"

This is basic physics controlling the effect here, not electrical routing. Speakers are microphones by their very design. To make them work as a microphone, you merely speak into them with them plugged into an input jack that provides at minimum a line level electrical signal to be modified by wiggling the speaker cone/diaphragm back and forth.

[nerdsniper]

Yes, but the computer doesn't have the firmware to "record" that signal from the speaker output pins. Thus, to record from the speakers acting like microphones, would require rewiring the headphone cable, for the vast majority of computing devices.

If you click "record" on your computer, there's no way to tell it to record signal from the speaker output channels, even if you write a custom low-level application directly making OS calls. The OS can't even do it, because it's not supported by the firmware.

[lightedman]

"Yes, but the computer doesn't have the firmware to "record" that signal from the speaker output pins."

No, you plug directly into the microphone jack, that is what is providing your line level reference signal that gets changed by motion in the diaphragm. Zero rewiring required.

[nerdsniper]

None of my 8 computing devices have that port.

[kps]

Non-phone non-Apple devices often have a TRS microphone input separate from the TRS headphone output.