How to Reduce Background Noise in Teams (Noise Suppression and Voice Isolation)

Kids, dogs, roadworks, the kettle. Teams can filter most of it out before anyone else hears it. Two settings do the work: noise suppression and voice isolation.

1. Click ⋯ Settings and more > Settings.
2. Click Devices.
3. Under Noise suppression, choose a level:
• Auto — Teams decides. Fine for most people.
• High — filters everything that isn't speech. Best in a noisy house or a café.
• Low — light filtering. Keeps background music or a second voice intact.
• Off — no filtering.

You can change it mid-meeting too: ⋯ More > Settings > Device settings > Noise suppression.

High uses a little more of your computer's power, so if your laptop is already struggling, stick with Auto.

Voice isolation goes further: it learns your voice and filters out other people's voices as well as noise.

1. Go to Settings > Devices.
2. Switch on Voice isolation.
3. Click Set up voice profile and read the short passage aloud when asked.

It takes about a minute. After that, a colleague talking at the next desk doesn't come through on your calls.

Echo is usually someone's speakers feeding back into their microphone:

• Use headphones. That alone solves most echo.
• If two people are in the same room on separate laptops, one should mute and turn their speakers down.
• Check Device settings so Teams isn't using a monitor's speakers and a laptop mic that face each other.

Noise suppression treats music as noise and strips it out. For a music lesson or a performance, go to Settings > Devices and turn on High fidelity music mode, then set noise suppression to Off for that meeting.

My voice sounds robotic or clipped. Noise suppression is working too hard. Drop it to Low or Auto, and move the microphone closer to your mouth.

The option is greyed out. Some microphones and Bluetooth headsets don't support it, and it's not available in the browser version of Teams. Try a different headset or the desktop app.

People still hear my keyboard. Switch to High, or use push to talk (Ctrl + Space) and stay muted while you type.

Settings > Devices > Noise suppression > High removes nearly everything that isn't you. Add Voice isolation if other people talk nearby, and use headphones to kill echo for good.