Microsoft has released Insider Preview Build 26040 in the Canary Channel of Windows 11. The test version includes the Voice Clarity feature. This technology should automatically apply background noise cancellation to users’ microphone audio.
Microsoft states that Voice Clarity uses machine learning models to remove echo, suppress background noise and reduce reverberation in real time. This function is automatically activated in the preview build. This works automatically with all games and applications that use Communications Signal Processing Mode, such as Telephone Link, WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams. Both x64 and Arm processors support Voice Clarity.
Microsoft previously released such a function for its Surface laptops, and many other laptops already contain built-in noise cancellation, but now such a function is also built into Windows as standard. That means all Windows 11 devices will automatically get built-in noise cancellation support. However, users can disable this function themselves.
The preview build also includes some features already released in previous test builds, such as support for USB4 Version 2.0, and the ability to edit photos from a wirelessly linked Android device directly through the Snipping Tool in Windows. Canary version 26040 does, for the first time, come with a new design of the OS Media Setup tool, which allows Windows 11 to be installed cleanly. According to Microsoft, the design has been made ‘more modern’ and is more in line with the design of similar update and installation screens in the operating system.