Whether you’re using the desktop or mobile app, Teams will automatically apply Noise Suppression to your calls in an attempt to focus on your voice. However, if you use the desktop app you can go one step further by enabling different levels of noise cancellation depending on the level of noise around you. To changing Noise Suppression from Automatic to be either Low or High, or disabling it completely.
Enable Noise Cancellation on a Microsoft Teams Meeting by clicking on the ellipsis icon in the main menu. Choose Device Settings and click on the little arrow next to noise suppression to expand the options. Choose between auto, low or high, or you can turn off noise suppression completely.
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How to Remove Background Noise in Microsoft Teams
While Microsoft Teams does automatically apply noise suppression in both its mobile and desktop app, the mobile app doesn't offer the additional low and high settings as found on the desktop app. In fact on the Teams mobile app there aren’t any options to change the automatic noise suppression applied to a call. The only option available is to mute your audio altogether.
So whilst noise suppression is enabled by default, if you manually wish to adjust the setting in in the desktop app, these are the steps.
1. Start a Microsoft Teams meeting.
2. Click on the Ellipsis icon from the top main menu.
3. Choose Device Settings.
4. Expand out the noise suppression option.
5. Choose between auto, low or high.
6. Or disable noise suppression completely.
If you’re not happy with Microsoft Team’s ability to remove background noise, then it might be worth trying an alternative app. For this, I recommend a great little app called Krisp.
What is Krisp.ai?
Krisp.ai works by applying noise suppression A.I. to your default microphone. It works on both Windows and Mac and has a free tier to its pricing structure which caps out at 2 hours of audio per week, after which you’ll need to pay. Krisp works on Teams, Zoom, and Google Meets.
How to use Krisp.ai to remove background noise in Microsoft Teams?
To start using Krisp, browse to Krisp.ai and click on Get Krisp for Free. You’ll be asked to provide an email address and you’ll receive a verification code. Download the app for either Windows or Mac and install it in the usual way. Once installed, Krisp adds an icon to the system tray in Windows, or the menu bar if you’re on a mac. Clicking on ‘Get Started’ will sign you in to your Krisp account. Krisp then automatically applies noise reduction to your computer’s microphone.
If you have more than one microphone installed on your computer, you can select it from the drop-down menu. Having installed Krisp, to enable it in Teams, open up the device settings once more by clicking on the ellipsis icon and now you should see an additional microphone called Krisp.
How to Make Microsoft Teams Quieter?
When you’re on a video call, there’s every chance you’re not the one generating all the background noise. If this is the case, and you find other people’s background noise to be too loud, you can make it quieter by using Krisp.
Make Microsoft Teams quieter by clicking on the ellipsis icon in the main menu, and choosing Device Settings. In the device settings menu under Speakers, set your speakers to be Krisp. Krisp will remove the background noise from the audio and amplify people's voices.
How to Turn Off Noise Suppression on a Teams Meeting?
In some instances, the automatic noise suppression setting applied by Microsoft Teams might reduce the quality of your audio, making it more difficult for people to hear what you are saying. This is often the case if you have purchased a quality microphone that already does a good job of isolating your voice from other ambient noise.
To turn off noise suppression in a Microsoft Teams meeting, click on the ellipsis icon in the main menu and choose Device Settings. In the device settings menu expand out the noise suppression option by clicking on the little arrow. Set Noise Suppression to Off.
How To Mute Yourself in Microsoft Teams?
If you wish to mute yourself completely, rather than simply removing background noise, click on the microphone icon in the very top right corner of the window. If you’re on mobile, you’ll find the microphone icon in the menu running along the bottom of the screen.
Enable Noise Cancellation in Zoom
If like me you alternate between Teams and Zoom depending on who you’re speaking to, you might be pleased to know Zoom has similar noise suppression settings to Microsoft Teams.
If you open the Zoom app, click on the Settings icon in the top right corner of the Zoom window, choose Audio from the menu and there you have three levels of noise suppression which you can apply - low medium, or high. Next to each setting, is an explanation of the level of noise each option will remove, with High said to be able able to block out a dog barking in the background.
If you decide to go for high, Zoom will need to download an additional audio enhancement. Unfortunately, as with Teams, these settings are only available in the desktop app. You’ll just have to make do with automatic noise suppression in the mobile app.
If you’ve installed Krisp, then you can use it in Zoom as well, by changing the default microphone to be Krisp.
Final Thoughts
Microsoft Teams does a very good job of automatically trying to remove background noise both in their desktop and mobile app. By default noise suppression is turned on and you don’t need to worry about it. However, if you prefer you can adjust this automatic setting in the desktop app by setting the level to either low or high or by turning off noise cancellation completely.
Learn more about Krisp.ai and removing background noise from your audio.
