Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of last year, the platforms for making video calls have started to get a significant boom. One of them has been Microsoft Teams, whose importance has been increasing, reaching the point that it will even be part of the final version of Windows 11. Among its functions we find the possibility of reducing background noise in order to have clearer and sharper calls for our meetings.
There are few things as annoying when setting up a meeting as background noise when the microphone is on. Therefore, the Microsoft application has an artificial intelligence-based noise suppression function with three levels of noise suppression. Through it, we can reduce the environmental noise around us in a way that affects our meetings by Teams as little as possible, helping us to stay focused without distractions.
Avoid background noise, key in calls
When making calls through applications such as Microsoft Teams, it is important to reduce the background noise around us as much as possible. It is important that we place ourselves in a room, room or room where we know that the noise emission is as low as possible. It is important to keep the mobile silent (if possible) to keep the windows closed, not to use other applications on the PC that can emit sound, such as a music player, etc. In short, the more silent the place where the call is, the background noise will not bother us during the call.
It is also advisable to have a good microphone, or failing that, use a headset connected to the PC. In this way we can use its built-in microphone instead of the computer’s own. Another trick that can be helpful is to mute the microphone while we are not speaking. In this way, if any noise occurs, it will not reach the interlocutor, so your presentation can be heard with better quality.
In case it is not possible for us to improve the noise conditions that we find around us, Microsoft Teams has the solution. It incorporates a multi-level noise suppression function , which can help us in trying to reduce this annoying problem during calls. Through Artificial Intelligence mechanisms, it will be able to detect every minute detail, such as the noise of keyboards, mice, pen sounds, among others.
Next, we are going to see how we can activate it both permanently and during a specific call.
Reduce noise in Teams permanently
To activate the noise reduction permanently in our calls, the first thing will be to open Teams. In case we don’t have it installed yet, we can download it for free by clicking on this link . Next, we click on the icon where our profile photo should appear that we find in the upper right part and we select the option “Manage account”.
In the new window that appears we must select the option “Devices” on the left side of it. Now we look for the option “Noise Suppression” and click on the drop-down menu where we have four available options to choose from: Automatic, High, Low and Off.
- Automatic (Default): this mode, which is configured by default, is responsible for choosing the best suppression of background noise at all times using the application’s AI tool.
- High : Suppresses all background sound other than time. In order to use it, your computer’s processor must support Advanced Vector Extensions 2 (AVX2) and more system resources are used.
- Low : Cancels persistent low levels of background noise, such as noise coming from a fan or air conditioner. This mode allows you to play music during meetings or calls.
- Off : Turn off the Noise Canceling function and the microphone will pick up all surrounding noise. It is the recommended option in case we use a high-quality microphone or in environments with little noise.
When choosing any of these settings from our profile, it will be applied to our device by default, so it will always be executed when initiating a call. Once selected, press the X symbol in the upper right to return to the Teams home screen.
Reduce noise during a call
During meetings we may notice that background noise can disturb other users. This is something that can happen if, for example, we have the “Noise Suppression” deactivated or low, but this time the noise is louder than usual. In this case, we can reduce the noise during the call.
To do this, we can click on the icon with the three dots that we find in the upper right corner of the meeting window. Subsequently, we select the option “Device Configuration”.
This will open a drop-down menu where we must search and select the option “Noise suppression”. When clicking on it, a drop-down menu will appear where we can choose other of the available settings (Auto, High, Low, Disabled). Once selected, we close the right panel by clicking on the “X” icon at the top right. Thus, we will return to the “Meeting” window with the changes applied.
Disable background noise cancellation
The “Noise Suppression” function can be very useful to efficiently reduce the noise around us during Teams calling sessions. On the other hand, if we have a high-fidelity microphone, prepared for high-quality calls, it is possible that this function could cause us more problems than benefits, so we may be interested in deactivating it.
To deactivate this function, we must start the Microsoft Teams application and click on our profile in the upper right. Click on “Manage account”, select “Devices” and in the “Noise suppression” section, select Deactivate.
