The reality is it’s hard to keep noises down when you’re on video calls from home or the office. People slam doors, dogs bark and cars honk. That can be distracting for coworkers — and embarrassing for you. Video calls probably aren’t going anywhere in the near future, but there are ways to help them run smoother. What can be done about background noise, though? You can’t kick out noisy parties from your home, can you? Probably not — but there is another solution that will help mute background noise, and it’s a lot easier than banishing your family from your home.
App saves the day by eliminating background noise
Have you heard of krisp.ai? This app, which is available for both Windows and Mac users, promises to mute background noise in any communication app.
Seems almost impossible, right? Well, it’s not. Here’s how it works. The app uses machine learning to silence background chaos during video calls so your voice — and voices on the other end — are relayed clearly and crisply.
What does that mean, exactly? The AI krisp uses was trained to recognize only the voice of the person talking into a microphone. In doing so, it considers everything else — planes flying overhead, cars honking, dogs barking or kids yelling — as background noise. The background noise is subtracted from the waveform, which in turn leaves your audio clear and free.
This app will also remove background sounds that are coming in from the other direction, too. That means noisy chaos happening in your coworker’s home won’t cause any distractions on your end, either. You won’t even hear it.
Even cooler? This app works with just about every popular video meeting platform — Slack, Teams, Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Facetime, Webex and a ton of others. You can use krisp.ai to clear background noise from nearly every platform.
How to use krisp.ai
If you want to use krisp.ai, it’s easy to install. You’ll need to decide between the free tier and the paid tiers first, though. The free tier gives you 120 minutes per week of muted speaker and mic noise, so it’s probably adequate for those who aren’t on video calls several times a week. If you need more than 120 minutes of noise muting, you can opt for one of krisp.ai’s paid tiers. There are three to choose from: pro, teams and enterprise. Both pro and teams start at $5 per month and offer unlimited muting on over 800 different apps. You can connect up to three devices with both tiers. If you want to upgrade to Enterprise, you’ll need to contact krisp.ai for pricing.
How to get krisp.ai
To download krisp.ai visit its site by clicking here. Once on the site, scroll to the bottom of the page until you find the Downloads section. You can install the tool on Windows or Mac. Just click on Download for Windows or Download for Mac and a pop-up window will appear asking where to save the file. To install krisp.ai
Once you double click on the krisp.pkg file, a pop-up window will open.Click Continue on the bottom right corner and proceed to install. Please note that the destination is not subject to change and the application will only run if it’s in the Applications folder.Installation involves two main points:1. Krisp will add a virtual microphone that will sit between the physical microphone and other applications on your PC or Mac. This will suppress noise coming from your mic signal to the call participants.2. Krisp will add a virtual speaker that sits between the physical speaker and other applications on your PC or Mac. This will suppress noise coming from other call participants to you.
You’ll need to set up krisp.ai to work with the specific apps or platforms you use. You can get detailed information on how to do this for platforms like Zoom or Google Hangouts here.
