Microsoft has brought its AI-enhanced and Teams-based noise cancelation functionality to the desktop versions of Skype.

“Whether it’s people talking, kids playing, the construction workers next door, or your pet dog scaring that imaginary monster away from the front porch, background noise can be really distracting when you’re trying to talk on Skype,” a recent post to the Skype Blogs explains. “Well, no more! We are pleased to announce the release of our latest background noise suppression feature in the Skype desktop app. Originally developed for Microsoft Teams, this new feature is designed to silence just about everything except for your voice when you’re meeting on Skype.”

Noise cancelation is on by default, but you can configure the feature in Skype settings. You’ll find the following choices:

Auto (default). Skype will adjust the level of noise suppression dynamically and based on your environment.

Low. Only low levels of persistent background noise, like a computer fan or air conditioner, will be suppressed. (Microsoft notes that you can use this setting if you want to share the music you are playing.)

High. All background sound will be suppressed except for speech.

Off.  Noise cancellation is disabled.

Want to know more? Microsoft has an interesting discussion about how it is using machine learning (ML) to learn the difference between clean speech and noise here.

Thanks to Burke McQuinn for the tip!