Voice isolation in Microsoft Teams calls and meetings
In bustling environments like airports, crowded workspaces, or remote setups with background chatter, ambient noise can disrupt Teams calls and meetings. Voice isolation, an advanced level of noise suppression that uses AI to filter for your voice only from surrounding noise and other voices, ensures clear communication without distractions for your colleagues or clients during your Teams meetings.
How It Works
Voice isolation operates using advanced AI algorithms within the Teams platform. When a user enrolls their voice profile, the feature analyzes audio input in real-time to identify the user's voice amidst background noise and other voices. Once isolated, voice isolation employs adaptive filtering techniques to suppress interfering speakers and extraneous noise, ensuring that only the user's voice is transmitted to other participants.
Note: The voice isolation feature will first launch on Windows PC. Support on MacOS to follow.
Getting Started
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To enable voice isolation for your Teams calls or meetings, you must have a voice profile setup. To setup your voice profile, refer to: Use Microsoft Teams Intelligent Speakers to identify in-room participants in a meeting transcription.
Image 1: The Recognition tab in Settings.Note: If you do not see the Recognition tab in your Microsoft Teams desktop client, the feature may not be enabled for your tenant. Reach out to your IT admin for more information.
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By default, the noise suppression toggle is enabled for all Teams users. Once you complete the setup of your voice profile, the voice isolation option will then be automatically selected for you. To verify, proceed to your Audio settings in your Teams meeting and scroll down to the Noise suppression toggle. Enable the Noise suppression toggle if it is not already enabled, and you should see the voice isolation sub-option available.
Image 2: Audio dropdown via the Mic.
Image 3: Audio settings in Teams meetings.
How to use
After enabling the voice isolation feature, you will see some changes to your Teams meeting to inform you when and how the feature is working. See the table below for an explanation of the changes.
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User interface changes |
What this means |
|---|---|
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The voice isolation feature is enabled and ready for your Teams call or meeting. |
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If you enter into the meeting with your Audio muted, you will see the Mute icon next to the banner. |
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Just your name is displayed. No unwanted audio is detected, Voice isolation is in Ready state. |
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Unwanted audio is detected, filtering of unwanted noise and voices is in progress. |
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You will receive this notification if someone nearby is detected (e.g., you and a colleague are sharing your laptop for the current meeting). If you would like them to be heard, select the “Turn off voice isolation” option. |
Troubleshooting
We know voice isolation is important in ensuring the quality of your Teams calling and meeting audio. While rare, should there be any issues, Teams will alert you immediately to inform and advise you on how to resolve.
To use the voice isolation feature, users will need to enroll their voice profile first. Users can enroll their voice and face profile under Settings -> Recognition in the Microsoft Teams Desktop Client as long as the enrollment policy is enabled for their organization. If you are experiencing any issues with enrolling your voice, please ensure you are in a relatively quiet environment or try changing your connected microphone to improve the quality of your audio. To learn more, visit Use Microsoft Teams Intelligent Speakers to identify in-room participants in a meeting transcription.
Notes: If you see these alerts frequently or find your output audio is often unclear or suppressed, we recommended the following:
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Ensure your Teams client is updated. If you see an option to Update your Teams client, please make sure you do so before trying Voice isolation again.
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Deleting and re-enrolling your voice profile to ensure Teams has the latest voice profile for Voice isolation to work properly.
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Alert |
What this means |
|---|---|
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There is an issue with turning on the voice isolation option for your Teams meeting. Shut down and restart Teams and the voice isolation feature will reload. |
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Your desktop computer is experiencing performance issues and cannot support running advanced noise suppression models on Teams at this moment. To resolve, terminate the other apps running on your desktop computer. Re-enable the voice isolation option from the Audio dropdown or Audio settings. |
Related articles
Reduce background noise in Microsoft Teams meetings - Microsoft Support
Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy (SkypeForBusiness) | Microsoft Learn
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