Alexandra Cote | Writer at Krisp Blog https://krisp.ai/blog/author/alexandra-cote/ Blog Fri, 10 May 2024 10:04:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://krisp.ai/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cropped-favicon-32x32.png Alexandra Cote | Writer at Krisp Blog https://krisp.ai/blog/author/alexandra-cote/ 32 32 How to Mute Zoom On Any Device — A Simple Guide https://krisp.ai/blog/how-to-mute-zoom/ https://krisp.ai/blog/how-to-mute-zoom/#respond Thu, 09 May 2024 17:09:10 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=8087 Ever sat through a meeting and got super distracted by participants tuning in or adjusting their tech? Or a webinar where anyone could jump in with a question and halt the host’s presentation?    With Zoom meetings having, on average, 7 participants these days, it can surely get noisy! Thus, muting and unmuting participants in […]

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Ever sat through a meeting and got super distracted by participants tuning in or adjusting their tech? Or a webinar where anyone could jump in with a question and halt the host’s presentation? 

 

With Zoom meetings having, on average, 7 participants these days, it can surely get noisy! Thus, muting and unmuting participants in a meeting is the solution to keeping unwanted noises at bay.

 

Knowing how to mute Zoom can play a huge role in maintaining sharp Zoom audio in case you’re recording a meeting, and ensuring all participants can hear the speaker correctly.

 

In Zoom, there are dozens of ways of doing this to ensure the muting options are suited to their specific needs. But when can you mute Zoom, and when should you? Let’s have a look!

When Can You Mute Zoom?

Knowing when to mute yourself on Zoom can make or break a virtual meeting. Whether you’re dealing with background noise, multitasking, or simply not needing to speak, here’s your guide to mastering the mute button on Zoom.

 

Background Noise

Background noise can be a major distraction in virtual meetings. That’s especially true when the latter is a skip level meeting or other important team meeting. Whether it’s construction outside or a pet’s unexpected vocal performance, muting yourself can prevent these noises from disrupting the meeting flow. If you find yourself in a noisy environment, it’s courteous to mute your microphone to ensure everyone can hear clearly.

 

Multitasking

Sometimes, you may need to attend a meeting while juggling other tasks. In these situations, muting yourself can help you stay focused on your work without disrupting the meeting. It’s a simple way to ensure that your background activities don’t interfere with the discussion.

 

Listening-Only Webinars

In webinars where you’re only expected to listen, knowing how to mute Zoom from your side can prevent accidental interruptions. This is particularly useful in large meetings where multiple participants could cause chaos if everyone unmuted themselves at once.

 

Organizing Large Calls

In larger meetings, muting participants can help maintain order. This is especially true in public meetings where participants may speak out of turn. By muting participants until they’re ready to speak, hosts can prevent interruptions and keep the discussion on track.

 

Avoiding Disruptive Participants

Finally, muting disruptive participants can prevent their behavior from derailing the meeting. This is important in maintaining a productive and respectful meeting environment at all costs.

 

Knowing when to mute yourself on Zoom is key to a successful virtual meeting. Whether it’s avoiding background noise, multitasking, or managing disruptive participants, mastering the mute button on Zoom can help you stay focused and engaged.

 

Here’s a run through how to mute Zoom meeting participants as a host and when to give them the freedom to do so at their own will: 

How to Mute Zoom Audio on a PC or Mac: Steps for Participants & Hosts

To mute yourself, both as a participant and as a host (works the same way):

 

Head over to the meeting’s toolbar, click the Mute button on Zoom [the microphone icon,] and then Unmute to turn your mic back on:

 

 

You can also use the Alt+A keyboard shortcut to mute and subsequently unmute your mic. And if you’re wondering how to mute Zoom on Mac, use the shortcut command + shift + A to mute and unmute Zoom. 

 

If you joined a call via your phone, dial *6 to set your phone on mute your phone. Dial *6 again to unmute yourself.

 

You can automatically start on mute when you join a specific meeting by selecting Do not connect to audio before the start of the meeting:

If you’re wondering how to make sure you are muted on Zoom at all times you start Zoom meetings,  

  • head to Settings, Audio,
  • select Always mute microphone when joining a meeting:

Note: If you’re already on Mute, hold the spacebar to temporarily unmute Zoom yourself when you want to give quick feedback or ask a question. This quick hack ensures you won’t leave your mic on after you’re done.

Muting Yourself While Keeping the Computer’s Audio On

To get this to work, set yourself on Mute and mark the Share sound option when starting your screen-sharing session:

Now guests will see your screen and hear the audio on your own computer even if you’re on mute.

How to Mute Participants in Zoom

Here we’ll explore the steps to how to mute Zoom participants in your meeting. It’s important to note that only the host or co-host has the ability to mute other participants.

 

  1. Sign in to your account,
  2. On the left sidebar, click Settings.
  3. Scroll down until you find the “Mute all participants when they join a meeting” option and switch it on.

 

muting all participants from the get-go

 

How to Mute Participants in Zoom During a Call

To mute Zoom for participants in an ongoing meeting or a call:

 

  1. Click ‘Participants’ on the bottom toolbar, and a sidebar will open on the right-hand side,
  2. Click the Zoom mute icon(microphone icon) next to the name of the participant(s) you want to mute.Muting participants in a Zoom call

 

 

 

 

 

How to Mute All Participants in Zoom

Webinars. Presentations. Conferences. Co-working sessions. Team meetings.

 

All of these events have a host who’s not exactly going to enjoy the occasional interruption.

 

Got too much noise on one channel? 

 

As a host, you can handpick a specific participant either because they’re disturbing the Zoom call or because they might simply prefer to stay on mute but don’t know how to mute Zoom on their side. Thus, you politely ask them to accept their suggestion to be muted. Go to the list of participants [in the toolbar,] and you should be able to mute/unmute individuals manually:

 

From the same screen, you can choose to Mute All participants. Make sure you don’t leave the Allow Participants to Unmute Themselves option on if you don’t want people to jump in during your presentation. 

 

Remember you can always change this setting at any point during the Zoom meeting. So if you’re taking questions at the end of a webinar, head over to the three settings dots on the right side of the Mute All option. Select Ask All to Unmute to send a message to every participant when it’s ok to unmute themselves. 

 

You can also have everyone start the meeting on mute. When scheduling a meeting, select Mute participants upon entry from the Advanced Options:

 

Example: If you’re hosting a webinar, you might want everyone on mute throughout the session but still let them unmute their audio later when they have a question.

 

Getting Consent to Mute a Zoom Meeting Participant

 

For obvious legal and ethical reasons, Zoom hosts can’t unmute a participant if the latter hasn’t given their consent. This is why the first option to unmute someone is to Ask All to Unmute and send the pop-up request:

 

 

An alternative is to go to your In Meeting (Advanced) settings and turn on the Request permission to unmute option. 

 

 

Now, the option will appear every time you want to schedule a meeting:

 

With this in place, when a host wants to unmute someone, the participant will receive a message prompting them to allow the host to unmute at any time. 

 

Tip: Paid plans allow you to group participants and establish this request only for specific groups. This lets you send the pop-up consent request only to people you’ve selected beforehand. 

 

Once a participant has allowed the host to unmute them, they won’t be asked this a second time. So, for every meeting scheduled by the same host that got the initial approval, the participant can have their microphone unmuted when needed.

 

What if a participant wants to revoke consent for this? 

 

They can go to the Audio settings and manage/remove the hosts that received approval from the ‘People who can unmute you’ section. 

 

How to Block Background Noises During Virtual Meetings 

It’s tedious to keep muting/unmuting yourself when background noises start disturbing the meeting.

Zoom does have a noise suppression option that lowers background sounds like keyboard typing or dogs barking. Go to your Settings, select Audio, and scroll to the Suppress background noise section to make your selection:

The problem is that these four levels of the Zoom noise cancellation feature don’t block out all types of noises simultaneously.

 

For instance, even if you opt for the Auto setting, it only applies moderate background noise reduction so the chance for some sounds to go unnoticed is high. Your best bet would be to go for the High level but this will take up a lot of CPU power.

 

The same situation applies to the levels for echo cancellation under the Advanced audio settings:

 

 

So if you’re tired of pausing your recordings because of construction work going on around your house or you simply don’t want noise to disrupt an important conversation, try Krisp instead. 

 

The app automatically removes all background noises and echoes so your team won’t get distracted or misunderstand what you’re saying. If you’re a podcast host or YouTuber, you can record studio-like interviews through the built-in HD voice feature.

 

No extra equipment is required — you only need Krisp’s AI meeting assistant that brings automatic meeting recording feature to your virtual calls. 

 

This will instantly solve the “everybody-go-on-mute” problem. No need for anyone to Mute themselves on Zoom when they use Krisp.

 

The best part is that Krisp removes the background noises on both ends of a meeting. So if you’re hosting a webinar and taking questions, you won’t have to worry about not understanding the attendee because their fan is on. Krisp will clear up the background noises on their end too. All this with minimal CPU usage if you turn on the low power mode.

 

Here’s how to connect Zoom to Krisp in less than one minute:

Keep in mind you can connect this noise-cancelling app to any other video conferencing or recording tool that accepts the Krisp as the audio input.

Final Words on How to Mute Zoom During Meetings

As a general rule, remember it’s best to have your participants start the meeting on mute. This prevents the meeting from starting when they’re not ready or still caught up with talking to their family. 

 

Keep a general list of best practices to share with participants or display as your virtual background. Make it a rule for your team members or event attendees to mute themselves whenever they’re not speaking. Also, decide how a participant can get the host’s attention. They could virtually raise their hand, leave a message in the chat box, or directly unmute themselves.

 

Another super common situation is for speakers to forget they’re on mute. A host’s first instinct should be to tell the speaker that the other participants can’t hear them. Only resort to asking them to unmute via a pop-up if they missed your first cue.

 

And don’t worry too much about background noises. Turn on Krisp and let it do its job so you can focus on your call instead and rest assured that your audio will be of top quality.

Don’t forget to read our full list of Zoom tips you can use to host and record the most importnat meetings or events! 

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions 

 

How to Mute Someone on Zoom Without Being the Host?
It’s actually impossible to mute someone as a participant without being the host. You need to be a co-host, ask the host privately, or raise a hand to ask to mute certain participants. 

In a Zoom meeting, will I be notified when the Host unmutes me?
Zoom 5.0.3 prohibits your host from unmuting you without your permission. You will receive a notification that says, “The host would like you to unmute.” Then you can choose to stay muted or to unmute.

 

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A Detailed Guide on How to Blur Background in Zoom https://krisp.ai/blog/how-to-blur-background-in-zoom/ https://krisp.ai/blog/how-to-blur-background-in-zoom/#respond Fri, 26 Apr 2024 08:05:12 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=9420 Due to the rise of remote work, video conferencing has become a staple in our professional and personal lives. Finding an aesthetically neat and good-looking spot for video calls can be challenging, and a blurred Zoom background is necessary. Among its other user-friendly features, this one by Zoom helps you advance your privacy, minimize distractions, […]

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Due to the rise of remote work, video conferencing has become a staple in our professional and personal lives. Finding an aesthetically neat and good-looking spot for video calls can be challenging, and a blurred Zoom background is necessary.

Among its other user-friendly features, this one by Zoom helps you advance your privacy, minimize distractions, and maintain professionalism, no matter your location.

All this being said, here’s a straightforward guide on how to blur background in Zoom.

What You Need to Know Before You Blur Background on Zoom

To achieve a blurred Zoom background, let’s ensure you meet these simple necessary prerequisites:

  • The latest version (version 5.5.0 or higher) of Zoom desktop client for Windows or macOS,
  • Zoom mobile app for Android or iOS – version 5.6.6 or higher,
  • A processor with a minimum of a quad-core or higher.

 

Meeting these requirements ensures you can successfully blur background on Zoom without errors.

Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Blur Background in Zoom

Trying to figure out how to blur background in Zoom may occur in different situations. You may have some time before the call and decide to blur it. But you may also feel the need to do it when you’re already on the call. Thus, it’s good to be prepared for both situations. No matter what device you’re going to use, here are the instructions: 

Before a Call

  1. Launch Zoom and sign in to your account.
  2. Navigate to the ‘Settings’ icon in the top right corner as you click on your profile picture.Zoom Settings
  3. From the list that it opens, select the ‘Background & Filters’ tab.Zoom Background section

Here, you’ll see an option for ‘Blur’. Selecting this will instantly blur your background.Blur Background in Zoom

During a Call

  1. While in a Zoom call, notice the ‘^’ arrow next to the ‘Stop Video’ button on the toolbar (see the image below.)
  2. From the menu, select ‘Blur My Background’.


Zoom Background Blur During a Call

On Android / iOS

  1. Tap the screen to bring up the meeting controls.
  2. Tap on ‘More’, then select ‘Virtual Background’.
  3. Choose the ‘Blur’ option to apply a blurred Zoom background to your video.


iOS AND background Blur

Troubleshooting: What to Do if Your Blurred Zoom Background Isn’t Showing Up?

There are technical issues you may encounter as you get to learn how to blur background in Zoom. The following steps may be helpful if you encounter blurred background problems:

  • Update Zoom: Ensure your Zoom application is updated to the latest version.
  • Check hardware requirements: Verify if your device meets the necessary hardware specifications. With an Intel processor from the 6th generation and up you can use the blur background on Zoom feature. Thus, if you have 5th gen Intel or lower on your Windows/Mac, you won’t be able to use this feature.
  • Restart Zoom: Sometimes, simply restarting the Zoom application can resolve the issue.
  • Reinstall the application: This can be one of the possible solutions. To reinstall: 
  1. Go to your settings.
  2. Select ‘Apps’ and scroll down to Zoom
  3. Click on Zoom and select ‘Uninstall,’ then, confirm the action. 
  4. Then, go to the official website of Zoom and install the latest version again.
  • Contact Support: If problems persist, try contacting Zoom’s support team to receive further assistance.

Zoom Background Blur vs. Background Image: Pros and Cons

When considering how to blur background in Zoom, you may encounter the alternative of using a background image. However, you should be mindful of the following: 

  • Professionalism: A blurred background maintains focus on you, reducing distractions, whereas a background image can add personal flair but might not be suitable for all meetings.
  • Privacy: Both options provide privacy, but a blurred background ensures that nothing in your surroundings is distinguishable.
  • Performance: Blurring requires less processing power than running a high-resolution image as your background, potentially offering a smoother video call experience.

Here is a table summarizing the pros and cons of both options:

Feature Background Blur Background Image
Pros
  • Focuses attention on the speaker,
  • Protects privacy by hiding surroundings, 
  • Enhances professional appearance.
  • Allows for personal or professional branding,
  • Engages participants with creative backgrounds,
  • Ensures consistency in team meetings.
Cons
  • Lacks personalization options,
  • May affect video quality on older devices.
  • Can distract from the meeting content,
  • May not fully obscure unprofessional settings,
  • Requires more processing power for high-resolution images..

Get the Most out of Your Zoom Calls With Advanced Features

Enhancing your calls doesn’t stop with a blurred Zoom background. Krisp – an AI-powered meeting assistant, offers additional features to elevate your video conferencing:

  • Noise Cancellation: Eliminate background noise from your environment, ensuring your voice is crystal clear.
  • Background Voice Cancellation: Target and remove specific voices other than your own for uninterrupted communication.
  • Automatic Transcriptions: Enjoy accurate transcriptions without having to manually take notes.
  • AI Meeting Notes and Action Items: Use AI to summarize your meetings and outline action items, saving time and enhancing productivity with Krisp’s AI Meeting Assistant.
  • Call Recording: Record your calls for playback, ensuring you haven’t missed any details. 

If you combine Zoom’s blur feature with Krisp’s suite of enhancements, you’re set to deliver professional, efficient, and high-quality video calls, regardless of where you are or what’s happening around you. 

Maximize your impact during virtual meetings and make them as effective and engaging as possible by embracing these tools. 

 

Final Words on Blurring Your Background on Zoom 

Learning how to blur background in Zoom by following the simple steps outlined in this guide can significantly enhance your video conferencing experience. As a result, you’ll rest assured that you have privacy, professionalism, and a polished appearance on your virtual calls. 

All this being said, you should update your Zoom application regularly and check your device’s hardware requirements to avoid technical issues. Finally, consider using Krisp’s AI-powered meeting assistant with Zoom’s background blur feature for even better video conferencing results!

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Zoom blur background feature blur parts of me?
It must be because your camera is out of focus. To fix that, clean your camera with a clean cloth. If you have a separate webcam for virtual calls, manually twist the rings around the lens to make it focus.

How do I put a background image and blur in Zoom?
You can’t use both features together – a virtual background and blur background. But to set a virtual background you should:
1. Click on your profile picture, then ‘Settings.’
2. Pick ‘Background and Effects,’
3. Tap on the ‘Virtual Backgrounds’ tab and choose the one you prefer

Can you blur background on free Zoom?
The background blur option is available to both free and premium Zoom users as long as they are using the most recent version of Zoom’s desktop or mobile app.

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How Does Noise Cancelling Work? https://krisp.ai/blog/how-does-noise-cancelling-work/ https://krisp.ai/blog/how-does-noise-cancelling-work/#comments Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:00:03 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=9732 In our daily lives, we’re surrounded by sounds. From the hum of traffic to the buzz of a crowded room, noise is everywhere. But what if you could press a button and mute the world around you? That’s where noise cancelling technology comes in—a modern solution to an age-old problem. This guide will explore noise […]

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In our daily lives, we’re surrounded by sounds. From the hum of traffic to the buzz of a crowded room, noise is everywhere. But what if you could press a button and mute the world around you? That’s where noise cancelling technology comes in—a modern solution to an age-old problem. This guide will explore noise cancellation, how it works, and introduce you to Krisp, a software that’s changing the game in noise reduction.

What is Noise Cancellation?

Noise cancellation is a technology designed to reduce unwanted sound. Whether it’s for enjoying music, enhancing concentration, or ensuring clearer conversations, noise cancellation makes it possible to tune out distractions and focus on what matters.

How Does Noise Cancelling Work?

Noise cancellation operates through different methods, each tailored to combat noise in unique ways. Let’s look at the main types:

Passive Noise Cancellation

Passive noise cancellation is about creating a physical barrier that blocks external sounds. This can be as simple as the design of over-ear headphones that naturally muffle noises. It’s straightforward and effective for blocking out general ambient sounds.

Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)

Active noise cancellation takes a more sophisticated approach. It involves using microphones to pick up external noise and then producing a counter sound wave that neutralizes the noise. This “anti-noise” process is particularly effective against low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an airplane engine. AirPods, for instance, have an Active Noise Cancellation mode. This relies on an outward-facing mic that analyzes and detects noise coming from the outside and an inward-facing mic that listens for and cancels noises that escape from the external mic.

Tip: We’ve got a step-by-step guide to help you decide which headphones are the right ones for your different use cases.

Adaptive Noise Cancellation

Adaptive noise cancellation builds on ANC by adjusting to changing noise environments in real-time. This ensures the level of noise reduction is always optimized, whether you’re in a quiet library or a noisy café.

Adjustable Noise Cancellation

With adjustable noise cancellation, you have the power to control how much of the outside world you let in. This feature is great for maintaining awareness of your surroundings while still enjoying the benefits of noise cancellation.

Transparency Mode

Transparency mode, sometimes called ambient mode, allows you to hear important sounds around you without removing your headphones. It’s a smart feature for those who want to stay connected to their environment.

Key Differences Between Noise Cancelling Methods

To give you a clearer picture, here’s a quick comparison:

Type How It Works Best For
Passive Blocks noise with physical barriers High-pitch noise
Active (ANC) Uses special anti-noise sound waves to cancel noise Low, rumbling noise
Adaptive Adjusts to noise in real-time Changing noise environments
Adjustable Lets you control noise levels Personal preference
Transparency Lets outside sounds in Staying aware of the surroundings

Taking It a Step Further: Noise Cancelling Software

But noise-cancelling headphones don’t fix all of your problems. While you won’t hear your dog barking or electronic devices making buzzing sounds, others will.

That’s where new systems come in to end the noise problem.

While hardware-based solutions have significantly advanced noise cancellation, software solutions like Krisp represent a paradigm shift. Krisp utilizes artificial intelligence to identify and filter out background noise in real-time, offering a software-based approach to noise cancellation. This method is particularly useful in communication applications, ensuring clear audio transmission in calls and recordings, irrespective of environmental noise.

What Sets Krisp Apart

Krisp’s noise cancellation technology leverages deep neural networks to process audio in real-time, distinguishing between the human voice and background noise. Krisp’s technology stands out by not only removing incoming noise but also ensuring that the sound you transmit is crystal clear, free from any background disturbances. It’s a versatile solution that works across various platforms and devices, enhancing communication in professional and personal settings alike.

Here’s Krisp in action:

 

 

Features That Make Krisp’s Voice Clarity a Game-Changer

  • Advanced Noise Cancellation: Krisp’s AI-driven technology filters out background noise in real-time, offering a superior noise cancellation experience.
  • Echo Cancellation: It eliminates echo, making your calls sound more natural and clear.
  • High Compatibility: Krisp works with a wide range of communication apps, making it versatile and easy to integrate into your workflow.
  • User-Friendly: With a simple setup and intuitive interface, Krisp is accessible to everyone, regardless of technical expertise.
  • Comprehensive AI Meeting Assistant: Alongside superior noise cancellation, Krisp provides automatic transcription, AI-generated meeting notes, and a recording feature, transforming it into an all-in-one platform for capturing and managing meeting details effortlessly.

Conclusion: Embracing the Quiet Revolution

Noise cancelling technology offers a respite from the noisy world around us. From passive methods to advanced solutions like Krisp, the ability to control what we hear is more accessible than ever. As we continue to navigate life’s soundscapes, technologies like Krisp ensure that we can do so with clarity and focus.

Whether you’re looking to improve your concentration or simply enjoy your music without interruptions, understanding how noise cancellation works, and exploring solutions like Krisp, can enhance your audio experience in profound ways.

For more insights into specific platforms, here are our best resources to help you get started with using noise cancellation:

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

How does active noise cancellation work?
Active noise cancellation uses microphones to detect external noise, then generates a counteracting sound wave to neutralize it.

What is the difference between noise reduction and noise cancellation?
Noise reduction generally refers to passive methods that block out sound, while noise cancellation often involves active techniques to cancel out noise.

Can I use Krisp with any device?
Krisp is highly compatible with a wide range of devices and communication apps, making it a versatile choice for noise cancellation.

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5 Best Noise Cancelling Apps for Mac and iOS (For Any Use Case) https://krisp.ai/blog/noise-cancelling-apps-mac/ https://krisp.ai/blog/noise-cancelling-apps-mac/#respond Mon, 08 Jan 2024 06:51:22 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=2186 Are you looking for a noise cancelling app for Mac? Here is tried-and-tested selection of the 5 best apps available for Mac and iOS. Much like everything else, team communication applications are still far from perfect. One of their biggest drawbacks and challenges that individuals and teams need to overcome is the issue of background […]

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Are you looking for a noise cancelling app for Mac? Here is tried-and-tested selection of the 5 best apps available for Mac and iOS.

Much like everything else, team communication applications are still far from perfect. One of their biggest drawbacks and challenges that individuals and teams need to overcome is the issue of background noise. Noise cancelling technology is far from being a new invention, but we’re finally getting a good look at the demands for these tools in our daily activities. 

Even the smallest amount of background noise has a negative impact on your concentration and the quality of your calls. These unwanted noises make it challenging to properly hear and understand one another. This results in loads of misunderstandings during team calls or poor-sounding audio for podcasts and videos.

In this guide, we’re going over our tried-and-tested selection of the 5 best active noise cancellation apps currently available for Mac and iOS.

But first, let’s have a quick look over the factors you need to consider before relying on a noise cancelling app for your meetings and recordings:

  • Operating system availability: Some might not be available for Mac users and there’s even mobile apps you can only use with an iOS system. Before analyzing a noise cancelling app’s features, do a double check to see if you can get it on a MacBook.
  • Noise cancelling accuracy: Most tools claim to reduce (or supress) background noises. However, this means they lower the volume of noisy sounds when they should be blocking them completely.
  • Use cases: Generally, noise cancelling apps for Mac are created either for live streaming or for post-recording noise editing. If you want to use the app to cancel noises both during meetings and recordings, look for a versatile tool that works on both levels or one that lets you remove noises in real-time.

[demo-new]

  • Features: Besides noise reduction, you might want extra features like room and acoustic echo removal, sound quality improvement, and even reporting on your meeting time.
  • Ease of use and learning curve: Some noise cancelling apps work by asking you to pre-record sound snippets you want to remove. This requires extra work to prepare the library of sounds while other apps cancel noises automatically using AI or audio volume-related settings.

1. Krisp – best for remote workers, podcasters and teams

noise cancelling app for mac

Krisp is a noise cancelling app that takes away all of the background sounds during calls and recordings in real-time for both ends of the conversation.

You can connect it to your preferred conferencing, messaging, recording, or streaming tool as long as it accepts Krisp as the audio input. When you’re ready to use it, switch it on once and the app will automatically remove surrounding noises for everyone on the call. You can then use the Krisp widget before the start of the meeting to check the quality of your audio, removing the need to hold a test call ahead of time.

Behind the tool, there’s a Deep Neural Network that’s trained to remove background sounds and echo, leaving only the voice of the speaker closest to the microphone on the output. 

[demo-new]

 

2. Zoom and other video conferencing app with an integrated noise suppression functionality – best for quick use and no extra setup

With few noise cancelling apps for Mac out there, many video conferencing apps like Zoom or Microsoft Teams have built their own noise suppression features. This is a quick solution for individuals who don’t want to use extra tools or need a one-time fix to their audio issues. 

In Zoom, for example, you only have to select the sound level you want to remove throughout a meeting. Pick from Low (faint noises), Medium (computer fan, pen tapping), and High noises (typing, barking). Just keep in mind that these integrated noise cancelling features don’t completely remove distracting sounds because they don’t rely on AI to spot all potential noises.

You can use the default noise suppression feature of your video conferencing tool for team meetings and one-on-ones. However, keep in mind this won’t work for professional events, meetings, and recordings as they lack advanced features like HD voice rendering. For FaceTime noise cancellation, users can explore third-party options as Apple’s native app currently doesn’t offer such a feature.

3. AudioFix: For Videos + Volume – best for audio and video recordings you already have

AudioFix: For Videos + Volume is a noise cancelling app for iOS that cancels background noise from any video or audio recording and memo. This app is a great choice if you’re a regular iPad user and you need to improve the quality of your audio for recordings you already have. 

There’s multiple filters for the tool, including Audio Smoother, Strong Hiss Removal, and Mild Wind Removal. These help you adapt the noise cancelling process to every recording but don’t offer a completely clean final recording. Additionally, the app has some extra handy features that will help you edit your audio, like muting a sample of the recording or extracting sounds.

4. White Noise Lite – best for using your own recordings as ambient background sounds

While most noise cancelling apps give you access to a small library of ambient sounds you can use to cover up background noises, White Noise Lite lets you record your own. This free noise cancelling app for iOS is super easy to use and can help you relax, increase your focus at work, soothe headaches, and even mask tinnitus.

The app does come with a catalog of noises that induce and maintain your sleep and productivity, but it also allows you to record and enhance sound easily. The mixpad editor can be used by anyone so you can adjust the sound position, volume, sound variance, and pitch of every individual sound you want to add to your mix.

5. Sleep Pillow – best for keeping your health in check

noise reduction app mac

Sleep Pillow doesn’t fully remove noises as it works by playing back high-quality ambient sounds on top of the background. These create an atmosphere well-suited for improving your quality of sleep and meditation time. This noise cancelling app’s purpose doesn’t end here as you can use it to boost your productivity by cancelling unwanted background noise at work.

Most current users praise this app’s ability to drown out background noise, but a large chunk of users have reported that it feels somewhat limited. Note that the noise cancelling sounds used by Sleep Pillow are rather short in length. This means that it’s easily noticeable whenever a loop restarts, something that can become a distraction in itself.

How does Krisp compare

More and more people are beginning to understand how drastic an impact background noise can have on productivity and concentration levels. We hope that this short list will aid you in your quest to eliminate pesky background noises and improve the quality of your work, sleep, or meditation sessions.

If you regularly use noise cancelling headphones during calls consider adding Krisp to your arsenal. This nifty noise cancelling app filters out pesky background noise at both ends, leading to a significant boost in the quality of your calls. It’s also the most advanced noise cancelling app for Mac, allowing you to:

  • Record audio for podcasts, events, and videos in HD voice without requiring further edits
  • Remove room and acoustic echoes that can ruin a recording for good
  • Prevent misunderstandings during team calls as Krisp removes background sounds on both ends of a meeting with no manual input required
  • Use different tools simultaneously through the power saving mode that won’t crash your MacBook
  • Get a better idea of how you’re spending time in meetings and if you should reduce unnecessary calls to improve productivity 

Download Krisp For Windows

P.S. If you’re a Windows user, check out our list of noise cancellation apps for Windows.

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State of remote work in 2022 (7 Big Trends to Follow) https://krisp.ai/blog/state-of-remote-work/ https://krisp.ai/blog/state-of-remote-work/#respond Tue, 02 Aug 2022 21:45:01 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=8492 41.8% of U.S. workers want to continue working remotely in the future. These are professionals who will likely say no to an employer’s proposal to return to the office and even look for a new job that allows a flexible schedule. While recruitment has largely moved virtually, many organizations don’t yet have a clear view […]

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41.8% of U.S. workers want to continue working remotely in the future. These are professionals who will likely say no to an employer’s proposal to return to the office and even look for a new job that allows a flexible schedule.

While recruitment has largely moved virtually, many organizations don’t yet have a clear view of what the future of their workplace should look like. Resources are limited and managers still feel that their teams are equipped with the right skills to handle long-term distributed work. Some employees have already returned to the office for good while others are still trying out the hybrid model. 

The state of remote work in 2022 has seen an increase in new challenges and trends managers need to prepare for. Among these:

  • A first try at hybrid work
  • Reliance on video conferencing tools and further improvements
  • Employees getting used to the benefits of remote work and learning to say no to anything below their expectations
  • Advancements towards digital reskilling
  • A future global workforce without excuses
  • Continuous work on developing employee-employer trust
  • Remote work as a core diversity and inclusion strategy

The current state of remote work

A first try at hybrid work

2022 is yet another year for experimentation. 

66% of leaders are working towards changing their previous office spaces to suit a hybrid work model. Changing office layouts and pathways, adding new technology to connect remote and in-office employees, and creating safer rooms for virtual communication are three of the most common steps taken towards the new workplace.

This is the safest attempt at making new work demands suit everyone. On one hand, you’ve got employees who are enjoying their flexible time from home but would still like in-person interactions with their colleagues for collaborative work. On the other, you’ve got companies who are still unsure whether letting employees work away from the office can help them maintain the same performance levels in the long run.

A hybrid solution also aims to reduce employee turnover. This is because it allows each team member to choose how they want to work. A Qualtrics study on the future of remote work reveals that preferences towards each work style are fairly distributed:

Improving workspaces will significantly increase an employee’s experience and support high performance levels with minimal effort. This hybrid approach takes into account everyone’s opinions, supporting the well-being of every team member. 

The key to making everyone happy is ultimately communication. A McKinsey report reveals that organizations with clear communication patterns are seeing the benefits to employee well-being and productivity even in a remote setting. 

The same report highlights the uncertainty that’s still floating around what the future of work will look like. 40% of employees claim their organizations haven’t yet communicated a vision for post-pandemic work with only 32% of them aware of how their work will be:

Reliance on video conferencing tools and further improvements

In the meantime, video conferencing tools have replaced the traditional office and are settling in for good. 

The hybrid workplace will continue to rely on them as at-home employees need to be kept up-to-date with everything even when they’re not in the office. This means that any person showing up to the office will still have to maintain the same remote work practices as if they were working from home.

Owl Labs looked into the challenges that video calls will pose over the next few years, including:

  • Uncertainty related to the management of a meeting
  • Booking and finding empty conference rooms [especially as some companies have reduced the size of their offices]
  • Deciding on a single solution for all needs as 89% of organizations still use multiple video conferencing apps

Briefing this up, most executives still haven’t got the hang of video conferencing. In this context, Krisp has become a go-to solution on the market for keeping remote meetings productive and insightful.

Krisp reduces misunderstandings during meetings by removing background noises on both ends of a conversation. This makes for more professional client calls and you can even use the tool to record podcasts and webinars with HD voice quality and no echoes. 

[demo-new]

A newly launched feature enables teams to look closer at how they’re spending their time in meetings. The Insights section tells you exactly how much time you spend on a call and what apps you used. This gives you a better idea of what video conferencing apps are worth keeping and can indicate if you’re spending too much of your day in meetings.

Employees getting used to the benefits of remote work and learning to say no to anything below their expectations

Access to a better work-life balance, working from a dream location, spending more time with their families, and working according to a flexible schedule are four core benefits that employees have simply gotten used to.

These are now basic, mandatory perks that employees demand from their future workplace. In an increasingly competitive job market, it’s worth looking into offering unique perks to attract and keep your hires. Some organizations are already ahead of this trend, offering one-of-a-kind benefits like:

  • A four-day workweek
  • Unlimited vacation time that’s paid for
  • Equal pay for all team members and full transparency into the salaries they offer
  • Covering the cost of house cleaning, child care, fitness memberships, and even vacations
  • Paying for sabbaticals as long as one year
  • Delivering free lunches and dinners straight to employees’ homes
  • Contributing stocks to new hires at no cost
  • Regular trainings and mentorship sessions for any new skill [work-related or not] they want to learn

Advancements towards digital reskilling

66% of L&D managers agree that learning and development efforts should be the main focus for companies looking to rebound or grow in 2022. Prior to 2020, this wasn’t at the top of the priorities list as the same LinkedIn report reveals an increase from 24% to 63% in executives’ interest in L&D over the course of a single year. 

Among all training efforts, executives are implementing more upskilling and reskilling opportunities:

Learning new skills and improving their current knowledge helps team members build the resilience and digital fluency they need to handle potential new challenges and threats. Companies like JPMorgan Chase and Amazon have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into upskilling their employees and helping them future proof their careers. This will help employees stay confident, keep up with demands in their industry, and retain their jobs. 

What the future of remote work looks like

A global workforce without excuses

Working with global talent is becoming a necessity for companies as the future will bring more interest in remote work and reduce the number of available talent on a local level. Demand in certain industries is also exceeding the available talent, making executives look for hires beyond their close proximity. 

77% of leaders believe in the gig economy and freelance workers replacing full-time employees over the course of the next four years. This is expanding talent access even further, tapping into multiple nationalities and even generations as retirees and recent graduates will work on the same front.

Labor laws and policies as we know them are also likely to change in order to handle the demand for global talent. In the absence of new laws, working with international talent will cause compliance problems for organizations that don’t know how to handle this change.

Consequently, the issue of data security will continue to threaten organizations. Offices are being replaced by coworking spaces that aren’t yet prepared to handle the security operations and logistics of big companies. In 2020 alone, 20% of corporate workers used coworking space at least once a week with an increase of 6% from 2019.

Continuous work on developing employee-employer trust

53% of people believe corporations are responsible for sharing the information that the news media fails to deliver. The same Edelman Trust Barometer shows that employee-employer trust is increasing on a global level with 76% of workers trusting their employer above other forms of communication including the Government and NGOs.

But as employees are free to move around, companies will have to maintain employees’ trust no matter where they are in the world. One way they’re already doing this is by implementing workplace mental health programs and building a culture of trust that starts at the top of the organization. Maintaining the mental wellbeing of employees is proving efficient at reducing work-related stress, improving absenteeism, and reducing turnover.

Each year employees are self-reporting more anxiety and depression occurrences caused by their work situation. This is often the result of a poor work culture or management issues. If employers don’t show any interest in fixing problems and helping employees overcome these issues, people will be leaving the organization. This is the exact driver behind companies investing millions of dollars into their mental health programs as well as the increased interest in mental health startups.

Remote work as a core diversity and inclusion strategy

The expanded global talent pool has eased efforts for building a diverse workforce. Two out of five DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) professionals admit that hiring remotely is a DEI initiative they introduced in 2020. More organizations will go down this path to promote diversity as part of their culture, train recruiters to implement inclusive recruitment practices, and diversify their talent pool by opening up to new locations and minorities.

Gartner has revealed that previous D&I initiatives have been largely ineffective so focus on them remains a top priority for 69% of CEOs. New programs are being built starting with a talent acquisition process that focuses on gradually eliminating hiring bias altogether in the future. Organizations are also looking into setting up networking opportunities for underrepresented talent within the organization. The bottomline approach is for employers to improve the relationship they have with every single employee, regardless of their representative group.

Key takeaways on anticipating the future state of remote work in 2022

Organizations that have successfully passed through 2020 have one thing in common: they were able to anticipate future trends and employee needs. The companies have established employee engagement and inclusion programs ahead of time and opted for reskilling their remaining team instead of pausing their activity. 

You can start thinking about the future of work within your own company by looking at your daily activity. Over the next few years, some tasks are more likely to be done remotely than others. McKinsey has studied each type of activity workers in the U.S. do. They determined that it’s tasks and activities [as opposed to occupations] that indicate whether a job can be done remotely or requires a hybrid approach. 

Comparing these types of activities will give you a good idea of whether the hybrid work approach is right for your team or you can stick with a fully distributed workforce. For example, if work is largely based on discussing business strategies and analyzing trends, a remote setting will be enough. Once you need your employees to create physical prototypes or attend client meetings, the hybrid model is a clear choice.

Finally, remember to maintain an open communication loop with your employees. One-on-ones and anonymous feedback surveys can give you a lot of insights into how your team feels and what they’re struggling with. Read more on how to have a productive remote one-on-one through our guide.

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6 Top Challenges of a Hybrid Workplace and How to Overcome Them https://krisp.ai/blog/challenges-of-hybrid-workplace/ https://krisp.ai/blog/challenges-of-hybrid-workplace/#respond Thu, 30 Jun 2022 17:47:05 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=9362 The hybrid workplace is continuously changing as talent is now more inclined to apply to fully-remote roles.  This poses new demands for managers who need to speed up the way they build a lasting culture while they continue handling classic communication and work structure challenges. But these hybrid workplace challenges are not exactly new. They’re […]

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The hybrid workplace is continuously changing as talent is now more inclined to apply to fully-remote roles. 

This poses new demands for managers who need to speed up the way they build a lasting culture while they continue handling classic communication and work structure challenges.

But these hybrid workplace challenges are not exactly new.

They’re tidbits you might have experienced in a remote or in-office setting and now need to adapt to as some employees are choosing to stay home while others are dropping by the office.

Nevertheless, there’s 6 challenges your hybrid team is likely to encounter at some point. Here’s how to overcome them and prevent similar pains from reappearing. 

1. Keeping communication in one place

The biggest team and productivity killer is miscommunication. The root cause is a simple one: Team members not sharing everything in one common place or not giving the right instructions. The results range from simple “Sorry, I’ll fix this ASAP” messages to delayed deadlines and lost funding or clients because you couldn’t ship something on time.

The fix:

You can fix all of these time delays, bugs, or team conflicts by setting up a central company hub. Specifically, you’ll want a platform for knowledge sharing and decision making. Pick either a project management software with a complete set of feature for your team’s needs or a dedicated knowledge management tool.

But there’s another facet to ensuring both your remote and on-site team have access to timely and accurate information. The policies you’ve set from the very beginning. Here’s some ideas to consider:

  • How often managers should sync with their teams
  • If meetings or their notes are recorded for absent team members to review when they get back from their day off
  • If you want to replace daily stand-up meetings with a quick Slack check-in
  • What your company’s communication goals are and how you track these

Another big factor that goes into messing up communication in the hybrid workplace is distractions. Whether it’s background noises during meetings or your friends’ texting you during work hours, these play a big part in lowering overall productivity. 

While a phone is easy to put away, to get rid of background noises you’ll need a solution like Krisp. The app eliminates unwanted background sounds and extra voices from other people in the room on both ends of a conversation. This way, your employees can rest assured they’ve got a professional meeting set-up, complete with virtual backgrounds and echo cancelation. No matter where they are.

[demo-new]

2. Facilitating social connections [and ensuring no one is left behind]

31% of employees leave their job within the first six months. And it’s not because of money. The biggest problems include poor leadership and team culture. 

In my own experience working with both fully-remote companies and hybrid ones, I’ve noticed one common pattern: The companies with a high employee turnover rate didn’t invest in culture. To be exact, they didn’t build connections between their employees. So it was all about work and more work.

Social connection at work help teams bond over something that’s of value to them besides their work. Truth is that outside of the office, connections need to be scheduled. Otherwise, they just don’t happen naturally like they would in a regular office setting. 

The fix:

I remember at some point I was the only one working remotely while the rest of the team was working from the office. Opportunities to really connect were non-existent so I often felt isolated. This left me struggling to create such social interactions for myself. Worked for a while, but ultimately, you want these initiatives to come from the leadership.

There’s dozens of activities to consider if you want your hybrid team to stay connected:

  • Having mandatory coffee chats for each team and switching teams around every now and then
  • Connecting random employees, regardless of the team they belong to, for a virtual 
  • Regularly holding in-person [or not] events where all employees can meet up
  • Making team building activities a weekly [not quarterly or yearly] habit
  • Creating social groups [can be just channels in Slack] but making sure everyone is part of at least one or two of these
  • Getting anonymous feedback from your team to see what else needs improvement

3. Re-building team culture from the ground up

You’ve probably been working remotely for the past years so there’s already new rules [written or not] your team probably got used to. But switching to hybrid mode means you’ll need to adapt these to the new norm.

Team building events will no longer always be online. Everyone will expect a lot more flexibility. Teams still need to stay accountable and have a shared purpose. The topic of fairness will often be brought up so you need to work on maintaining equity. You’ll need new ways to manage conflicts across both the physical and the virtual realms.

And the list goes on.

The fix:

The best solution is to finally start working on a Company Handbook and sticking to its best practices. 

On one end, there’s the basics you need to cover, like:

  • How communication works
  • How you manage projects and tasks
  • What resources managers can use
  • How a project handoff happens
  • How you do meetings

Then come the aspects you’d be tempted to forget about:

  • How the team socializes
  • How employees should share their appreciation for other colleagues
  • What missions and values the team shares

You can only re-build and reinforce a strong hybrid culture by taking ALL of the above into account and making sure everyone is aware of their role within the team and their contribution to that shared vision.

4. Finding talent

Let’s face it. Everyone got a taste of the flexibility remote work offers so very few are willing to go back to working from the office. 97% of people would like to keep working remotely at least some of the time.

In fact, there’s now a much higher demand for remote jobs than actual remote opportunities. So most companies are staying open. They want to hire the best talent after all. Remote or not.

The fix:

The worst mistake companies could make right now is to only advertise their roles as hybrid ones. This automatically removes you from the feed of anyone looking for a remote role. Even from someone open to working from the office for one day a week or a week/month.

But job categorization is difficult to bypass. Trick number one to “fool” the system is to list your job opening on both remote and on-site job directories. For a platform like LinkedIn, you can have multiple listings. One for the hybrid opportunity and a separate one for the remote role. 

Did you know companies list their jobs for multiple locations [i.e. cities, countries] to ensure a wider reach? Take a similar approach but be transparent about your hybrid work policies.

Plus, remember there’s always room to upskill your current team members and improve your staff retention rates in the process. It also pays to be open to junior-level professionals. There’s fewer remote and hybrid roles out there for people at this stage of their career. [Note: This will require some extra policies for training and mentoring new employees.] ?

5. Setting performance evaluation standards

Among the challenges of hybrid work models comes the following question:

Where and how do I get reliable data on my team’s performance?

Your first thoughts will likely lead you to search for one solution to give you all the performance analytics in one go.

In reality, your projects are managed separately from where your team’s wellbeing is monitored. And your software development team uses completely different tools from your marketers. Nothing’s ever in a single app even when both remote and in-office employees share solutions.

The fix:

Take a step-by-step approach to tracking and measuring performance in a hybrid team setting. One channel/problem at a time. Next are some common challenges you’ll find in the hybrid workplace:

Checking in on the team’s pulse: Send anonymous pulse surveys on a regular basis to get an idea of how each employee is feeling and what challenges they’re facing but aren’t ready to talk about.

For lengthy meetings: Monitor engagement levels during your calls and review the amount of time you spent in meetings with Krisp.

[demo-new]

For the dreaded task of tracking OKRs: Use a tool like Hyperontext, Mirro, or Fellow to set the right OKRs and see how you’re progressing.

Seeing if your team’s wasting time: Experiment with time tracking tools to find out if certain tasks are blocking your team. You might want to assign more people to an activity or reorganize your time estimates if milestones are repeatedly missed or postponed.

Remember that teams in a hybrid workplace might require more frequent check-ins and reporting to ensure alignment and prevent any tasks or goals from falling through the cracks.

6. Facing the omnipresent productivity challenge

Finally fixed all productivity issues for your remote team?

Great! Time to take those learnings and adapt them to the new hybrid reality.

In a hybrid team environment, employees could find themselves lost in communication [see point 1 above], missing meetings, or simply not trusting the work a colleague is doing. All of this is highly a matter of individual preferences.

The fix:

Staying open to flexible working arrangements is likely to boost productivity and employee satisfaction. But each person will have different productivity drivers, depending on their role and day-to-day duties.

I’ve taken a couple of common team roles and had a look at what drives optimal productivity for each:

  • Marketing specialists/managers: This role is highly dependent on every individual’s duties. A content manager might prefer a quiet work environment to focus on deep work such as writing or content ideation. A partnership manager, on the other hand, will feel more productive either coming into the office to hold meetings or even going to a partner’s headquarters.
  • Product owners: Teamwork is key here. So if your product documentation and tasks are scattered or separated from the engineering tasks, you’re in for a huge mess. Instead, stick to classic methodologies and frameworks. Have regular sprint meetings and organize fun brainstorming sessions that involve multiple team types.

Next steps to handle these challenges of the hybrid workplace

Regardless of the challenges you’ll face, remember to outline your boundaries and make them a part of your culture. Is it ok for certain team members to never show up in person? Who’s in charge of monitoring employee engagement and making sure no one is left behind? Are there any blockers your employees are staying quiet about?

Most of the challenges above could be hidden at the moment. So run anonymous employee surveys to get their true thoughts. Pair this with regular performance analysis. Look at missed milestones, progress that’s slower than expected, and unjustified behavior like employee absenteeism from both work duties and the fun team chats.

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10 Best Hybrid Workplace Communication Tools in 2024 https://krisp.ai/blog/hybrid-work-communication-tools/ https://krisp.ai/blog/hybrid-work-communication-tools/#respond Mon, 27 Jun 2022 17:03:37 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=9384 The past two years have brought most teams face-to-face with dozens of new digital solutions. For 54% of people, this app overload is making knowledge management more difficult. So in the hybrid office setting, you’ll want to use dedicated tools that can cater to specific needs without overloading your team’s work days.   Advantages of […]

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The past two years have brought most teams face-to-face with dozens of new digital solutions. For 54% of people, this app overload is making knowledge management more difficult. So in the hybrid office setting, you’ll want to use dedicated tools that can cater to specific needs without overloading your team’s work days.

 

Advantages of Using Workplace Communication Tools

If you’re thinking of getting new tools to help your employees talk to each other and feel more involved, you’re making a good choice! Hybrid workplace communication tools help people who work from home or in different places to talk to each other better. They also help the whole company in these ways:

  • Everything in One Place: Bosses and team leaders can use one main tool to see how work is going, check if people are talking well with each other, and know who is doing what job.
  • Don’t Lose Information: With so many things happening at work, it’s easy to lose track of important stuff. Hybrid workplace communication tools help by having one place where all the information about work can be found.
  • Keep Talks Safe: Mark Pierce, who runs a company called Colorado LLC Attorney, says that companies are using more technology now, and they need to be careful. They have to make sure that the tools they use don’t let important information get lost or stolen. Keeping information safe is very important to avoid breaking the law or having other big problems.

So, it’s really important for you to choose the right tools that keep all your talks and information safe.

10 Best Hybrid Workplace Communication Tools

We have compiled a list of 10 mandatory hybrid workplace communication tools to consider as you’re settling into this new way of work. Each app is going to help you with a different need so you can speed up work, create better team connections, and remove diversions.

1. Krisp: To keep distractions away and make the most of meetings

Krisp is an advanced AI transcription tool that leverages cutting-edge artificial intelligence and transcription technology to offer highly accurate, fast, and reliable transcriptions. Its AI meeting assistant is designed to ensure that your virtual check-in meetings are transcribed with utmost clarity and minimal errors. 

 

For those in need of effective and exact transcriptions of virtual meetings, Krisp is an essential tool. It stands out due to its ease of use and instant transcription capabilities.

 

Krisp integrates effortlessly with your online meeting tools, operating in the background so you can concentrate on the discussion at hand without worrying about recording or file handling for transcriptions. Once your meeting is over, the transcriptions are immediately available.

 

Additionally, Krisp’s AI note-taking capability adeptly captures and condenses the key points, discussions, decisions, and next steps into concise, easy-to-comprehend summaries, providing you with clear meeting takeaways. These summaries enable you to swiftly review the critical outcomes and tasks, thereby saving you significant time.

 

Krisp also offers its signature AI noise-cancellation feature. This is particularly useful as background noise can disrupt the quality of audio in virtual meetings. With Krisp, any distracting sounds are filtered out, ensuring your audio is clear. This clarity is crucial for producing transcriptions that are both precise and trustworthy.

 

Using Krisp means you can enhance your meeting processes, boost communication efficiency, and reliably document all important information for subsequent review and action.

 


Top Features of Krisp

 

  • Experiment with Krisp’s Virtual Backgrounds for a more professional or customized appearance during video calls.
  • Select from pre-existing images or upload your personal choice to showcase a product or a fun backdrop.
  • Use the background feature to display a call-to-action or brand-related visuals.

Customer ratings and reviews:

It is great in a very busy office. When you’re on the phone with a client and they cancel out the background noise, it really helps so the client can hear everything I am discussing with them.

  • 86% 5-star ratings on G2​​.
  • 12% 4-star ratings on G2

Pricing:

  • Free:
      • 60 min noise cancellation daily
    • Pro: $8/user/month:
      • Unlimited noise cancellation
      • 2 devices
    • Business: $10/user/month:
      • All Pro features
      • Up to 50 users
  • Enterprise:
    • Contact for details

2. Slack: Streamlining communication with collaborative messaging

Slack tool
Slack is a popular messaging app used in workplaces to help teams communicate and collaborate effectively.

Slack’s design makes it simple for groups within a larger team to connect through something known as ‘channels.’ These channels are central to Slack’s user-friendly design, allowing conversations to be categorized by specific projects or subjects, ensuring discussions are easy to follow and reference.

Slack’s Top Features:

  • Channels: Create separate spaces for different topics to keep conversations organized.
  • Huddle: Offers the option to have audio or video calls within channels for quick discussions.
  • App Integrations: Slack can be linked with a variety of other tools and software, such as ClickUp, Google Drive, Zoom, and more, to streamline workflows.

Customer ratings and reviews:

  • G2 users rate Slack highly, with a score of 4.5 out of 5 based on nearly 31,000 reviews.
  • On Capterra, Slack has received a score of 4.7 out of 5 from about 23,000 users.

Pricing:

  • Free: Basic access without cost.
  • Pro: Costs $7.25 per user, per month.
  • Business: Priced at $12.50 per user, per month.
  • Enterprise: Pricing details are provided upon request.

 

3. Hypercontext: For organizing meetings and tracking goals

Hypercontext tool

Hypertext is a hybrid workplace communication tool that helps managers create a more effective and collaborative work environment. It’s useful for organizing meetings and setting goals, which helps teams stay aligned and driven to perform their best.

 

Hypertext’s Best Features:

  • Organize team meetings or individual one-on-ones.
  • Set and track goals weekly to monitor progress.

 

Customer ratings and reviews:

 

Users have found that Hypercontext, also known as SoapBox, has significantly improved the productivity of their meetings. It allows them to prepare agendas, allocate tasks, and maintain consistency from one meeting to the next, according to a review on Capterra.

 

Pricing:

  • The Basic plan is available for free.
  • The Pro plan costs $5.60 per user, each month.
  • The Business plan is available at $8.80 per user, each month.

 

4. Microsoft Teams: Unifying collaboration with integrated workspaces.

Microsoft Teams tool

Microsoft Teams has become a crucial hybrid workplace communication tool, enabling modern employees to conduct video calls, and group chats, and manage other internal communication needs. 

 

With Microsoft Teams, meetings can be held at any time and from any location. Its features like Together Mode and Dynamic View make virtual meetings and webinars feel more engaging and interactive, almost like being in the same room.

 

For communication, Microsoft Teams offers a user-friendly way for remote workers to chat and collaborate, with features like channels and shared channels, the ability to create team rooms, and even manage phone calls through the software. It connects all aspects of your team’s day from desk booking and hybrid meeting scheduling to fun coffee chats and more.

 

Additionally, if you’re looking to document your discussions, “How to Transcribe Teams Meetings” could guide you through the process of transcribing your team meetings effectively.

 

Top Features of Microsoft Teams:

  • Microsoft Office 365 Integration: Works smoothly with popular programs like PowerPoint and Excel, making team meetings and chats more efficient.
  • Breakout Rooms: Lets you run smaller group discussions during a larger meeting.
  • Together Mode: Places video feeds of remote team members onto a shared virtual background to simulate a gathering.
  • Presenter Mode: Allows the person presenting to view slide notes and upcoming slides without showing them to the audience.

Pricing:

 

For individuals and families:

  • Free version available.
  • Microsoft 365 Personal: $6.99 monthly for one person.
  • Microsoft 365 Family: $9.99 monthly for up to six people.

For businesses:

  • Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4 monthly per user.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 monthly per user.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 monthly per user.

Customer ratings and reviews:

  • G2 gives it a score of 4.3 out of 5 based on over 13,000 reviews.
  • Capterra rates it at 4.5 out of 5 from nearly 9,000 reviews.

 

5. Zoom: Connecting the world with seamless video conferencing

Zoom meeting tool

Zoom has become an essential hybrid workplace communication tool for teams, especially in recent years, helping team members stay in touch effectively.

 

Zoom lives up to its promise as a single platform for connection, creativity, and innovation, offering various features that facilitate collaboration among employees. It includes Zoom One for meeting and messaging, Zoom Spaces for advanced video solutions, and Zoom Events for hosting online events.

 

For those looking to get started, “How to Set up a Zoom Meeting with Easy Steps” provides a straightforward guide to scheduling and launching Zoom meetings effortlessly.

 

Top Features of Zoom:

  • Virtual Meetings: Known for reliable video calls, Zoom supports high-definition video and audio for up to 1,000 people at once.
  • Meeting Recording: Offers the ability to record both audio and video during meetings.
  • Zoom Chat: Enhances team communication with chat capabilities, including a searchable history and a decade-long archive.
  • Zoom Whiteboard: Provides a digital whiteboard for presenters to illustrate concepts and share ideas visually.

Pricing:

  • Basic plan: Free of charge.
  • Pro plan: $14.99 monthly for each user.
  • Business plan: $19.99 monthly for each user.
  • Enterprise plan: Pricing is provided upon request.

Customer ratings and reviews:

  • G2: Rated 4.5 out of 5 from over 52,000 reviews.
  • Capterra: Scored 4.6 out of 5 based on around 13,000 reviews, and recognized as a top performer in meeting software.

 

6. Yammer: Fostering community engagement in corporate networks

Yammer hybrid tool

Yammer, owned by Microsoft, is a workplace communication tool designed to improve hybrid team communication both within your company and with external partners. It helps everyone stay up-to-date and supports company productivity.

 

Top Features of Yammer:

  • Facilitates smoother communication among team members.

Customer ratings and reviews:

  • Users appreciate its straightforward and easy-to-navigate interface, which simplifies communication across the organization. It’s especially helpful for connecting various agencies within a network, saving time, and creating a more efficient work atmosphere. Yammer is also used for celebrating team achievements and boosting morale, according to a review from G2.

Pricing:

  • There’s a free version available if you sign up with a company email.
  • The service costs $3 per user each month.

 

7. Flock: Streamlining team communication with efficient messaging tools

Flock hybrid tool

Flock is a team messaging application designed to boost collaboration by allowing team members to send messages, share files, and have video meetings.

 

Top Features of Flock:

  • Offers direct messaging and access to a company-wide directory.
  • Enables sharing of files, notes, and the latest team updates.

Customer ratings and reviews:

  • According to feedback on Capterra, Flock has been instrumental in bringing remote teams closer together, ensuring everyone is connected and communication flows well. The tool has seen full adoption within teams, significantly enhancing unity among team members.

Pricing:

  • Starter plan: Free for teams with 1 to 20 members.
  • Pro plan: $4.50 per member each month, suitable for teams with 20 to 100 members.
  • Enterprise plan: Custom pricing is available for teams with more than 100 members.

 

8. Troop Messenger: Enhancing team connectivity with comprehensive chat solutions

Troop Messenger hybrid tool

Troop Messenger is a workplace communication tool that provides teams with fast and efficient ways to interact through text chats, voice calls, video calls, and screen-sharing capabilities.

 

Top Features of Troop Messenger:

  • Allows for group meetings that team members can join anytime.
  • Provides a screen-sharing feature during video calls.

Reviews for Troop Messenger:

  • Users report on TrustRadius that the app’s one-on-one messaging and supportive features, including voice and video calls, screen sharing, and audio messaging, help maintain communication among team members. This simplicity and functionality assist teams in staying on course to meet project deadlines.

Pricing:

  • Premium: $2.50 per user per month
  • Enterprise: $5 per user per month
  • Self Hosting: $5 per user per month, suitable for 500+ user

 

9. Loom: Revolutionizing communication with easy-to-use video messaging

Loom hybrid tool

One of my biggest secrets for ensuring peak productivity in a hybrid work model is sending videos for instructions. Loom is a tool for recording and distributing video updates to your team, offering an efficient way to communicate asynchronously and share your screen.

 

Top Features of Loom:

  • Enables asynchronous teamwork with video messaging.
  • Allows for instant sharing of video messages among team members.

Reviews for  Loom:

 

Reviews on G2 suggest Loom enhances the way people build relationships beyond traditional email communication. It’s user-friendly and adds a more personal and engaging touch to responses, which customers also enjoy.

 

Pricing:

  • Starter package: Complimentary for up to 25 video creators.
  • Business package: Priced at $10 per month (or $8 monthly with annual billing) for up to 100 video creators.
  • Enterprise package: Customized pricing is available for an unlimited number of video creators; contact Loom for details.

 

10. Twist (Doist): Simplifying team conversations with structured communication

Twist (Doist) hybrid tool

Twist is a workplace communication tool that provides a well-organized approach to team messaging and communication. Team members can reply to messages at a time that suits them best, thanks to its asynchronous nature. The platform includes features such as threaded discussions for organized conversations, quick messaging for immediate communication, and the ability to share files with ease.

 

Top Features of Twist:

  • Helps keep various discussions neatly sorted.
  • Allows integration with other apps to streamline management.

 

Reviews for Twist:

 

Users have mentioned on Capterra that Twist is great for starting separate threads for each project and adding team members to specific projects as needed. Communication management is more straightforward with Twist because it keeps all information in a cloud database, and you can store contacts and send private messages.

 

Pricing:

  • The Free plan is available at no cost per user per month.
  • The Unlimited plan costs $5 per user per month.

 

Selecting the Ideal Workplace Communication Platform

In your quest for the perfect communication platform, prioritize solutions that align with your evolving needs, ensure flexibility and security, and offer good value for money.

With these tools, you can ensure that your team retains essential communication, bolstering productivity and efficiency in a remote setting. Depending on your specific needs—whether it’s for an online organizer, team updates, direct messaging, video calls, or file management—you can select a tool that best addresses your priorities. While there may be some feature crossover, each tool is unique and capable of functioning independently.

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6 best practices to strengthen collaboration in a hybrid workplace https://krisp.ai/blog/collaboration-in-hybrid-workplace/ https://krisp.ai/blog/collaboration-in-hybrid-workplace/#respond Tue, 21 Jun 2022 16:15:40 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=9396 “My remote teammates are working less than me.” “Two of our employees never show up for our virtual lunch break chats.” “I never know what the in-office team is working on.” These are all common challenges a newly built hybrid team will face at some point. In particular, fairness in collaboration is important to maintain […]

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“My remote teammates are working less than me.”

“Two of our employees never show up for our virtual lunch break chats.”

“I never know what the in-office team is working on.”

These are all common challenges a newly built hybrid team will face at some point.

In particular, fairness in collaboration is important to maintain the trust between your remote and in-office employees as well as to maintain a smooth project documentation and handover process.

To get you up to speed with the best practices that improve collaboration in hybrid workplaces, I’m going over 6 strategies that show immediate results. Each one of these is focused on helping managers solve a different collaboration issue.

1. Keep distractions away

Distractions are inevitable.

That’s the plain truth we can’t avoid.

There’s always one more chore that needs immediate attention or a quick errand someone has to run during work hours.

So ultimately what matters is:

  1. Building employer-employee trust and allowing your team to stay flexible as long as they can deliver work on time.
  2. Preventing distractions on one employee’s side from interrupting the work of others.

The most common [and also the most prone to disturbances] event when remote and in-office team members get to interact are meetings.

And these are surprisingly easy to manage.

A tool like Krisp helps managers tackle three common meeting challenges:

  • It removes surrounding noises and cancels background voices from other people speaking in the room based on individual voice pitches.
  • It shows you how long a person’s been talking during a meeting so you can monitor engagement levels and get quiet employees to speak up.
  • It lets you track the time you spend in meetings so you can better distribute talking points in the future and avoid lengthy meetings.

[demo-new]

2. Get your team on board with the new tech you’re picked

Nobody like to have a manager come in and bring more hybrid work tools to the board with no prior training. 

So if you’re planning on having your team use new tools, first make sure they truly need it. Choosing an app should be a collaborative effort. Talk to your team members to see what they don’t like about the current solution, what needs they have, and if a new tool will turn into a burden. 

After making a joint decision, prepare your training sequence. 

In other words, plan how you’re going to introduce the new platform and decide who will handle training and potential questions employees will have. An intro demo meeting is a good place to start. Take this further by holding dedicated demos for each team. Take a project management tool for instance. Your marketers will use it differently from your devs or design team.

Extra tip: Run feedback surveys on a quarterly basis to get a feel of how happy your teams are with the new tech stack addition. You don’t want to change tools every year so make sure that the solutions you pick from the beginning are versatile. Going back to our project management app example. You don’t need a tool to contain all the features possible as long as that platform’s easy to integrate with the other apps in your data ecosystem.

3. Help your employees connect [even when they’re not part of the same team]

This issue is relatively effortless to handle as long as you commit to making healthy employee interactions a part of your culture. 

Some inexpensive ideas for building a collaborative culture in the hybrid workplace:

  • Embrace facilitating random connections between members of the same team or not
  • Support new team members by assigning dedicated mentors
  • Create an environment that fosters feedback and transparency
  • Set up dedicated monthly or weekly times for employees to dedicate part of their schedule to building something with team members they don’t usually work with
  • Allow your employees to share activities and take time for the usual office chit-chat remotely too
  • Schedule cross-functional one-on-one calls or make these quarterly trips to the office for some solid bonding

If you’re running out of ideas, just ask your team!

Most problems that collaboration in a hybrid workplace could bring up can be solved by just giving your employees a voice. This is the most powerful method for making them feel valued and also ensuring that the changes you make are worthwhile. Managers retain the right to adjust the final strategies and tools based on general best practices.

4. Prioritize knowledge sharing

“Going back to the office also means I no longer need to track everything in an app, right?”

A common belief that many will stick to even when they don’t actively think of it.

Once employees are back in the office, they’re highly likely to forget about writing down all documentation. So their remote counterparts will no longer have all the resources and updates on a task’s progress.

That’s where you come in to state the obvious: “We need to make sure everything that happens on a project is documented.”

For hybrid teams, effective knowledge sharing is a costless process that has dozens of benefits, such as:

  • Preventing delayed or missed deadlines due to poor communication
  • Keeping all resources and project history in one place
  • Making it easier for new team members to adapt to a project and continue where work was left off
  • Highlighting potential details, data points, or strategies you’d miss in the absence of a shared knowledge hub
  • Speeding up productivity as individuals are no longer aimlessly asking and waiting around for the insights they need

So how do you get started with improving knowledge sharing?

Encourage knowledge sharing in multiple formats. Sure, keeping everything tidy in Notion is one guaranteed way of not letting anything pass through the cracks. But it’s not fun. So employees aren’t motivated to eagerly participate in knowledge sharing. 

Dig into the common personality types on your team and turn those traits and channels they’d enjoy using. From classic file directories to dedicated Slack channels, recorded calls, and Loom video folders. Reserve time for regular retrospective meetings with 5-10 extra minutes for people to share and contribute knowledge.

Idea in practice: Organize workshops on a weekly or monthly basis by calling up experts to teach your team skills ranging from design for everyone to leadership or getting started with managing projects.

5. Set clear KPIs and OKRs

Goal setting is more important than ever with hybrid workplace collaboration because it’s that one core thing that aligns all employees.

But first, a quick distinction between Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] and Objectives and Key Results [OKRs]:

  • KPIs – Measurable data points/numbers that highlight if a strategy is effective or stalling. Example: Reaching $6,000 in sales in each of the next two quarters.
  • OKRs – A framework that involves setting goals and key results for each business objective. Example: Attract new clients by increasing PPC advertising spend to $2,000/month.

Evaluating progress on these OKRs shouldn’t be merely a secondary priority. That’s why you need to pair them with KPIs that allow you to see if you’re meeting the company’s performance goals.

As general guidance, focus strictly on the objectives you’re able to attain. Unreasonable or too many targets will only cause more chaos in a hybrid team. Facilitate new creative challenges by setting realistic due dates for fun experiments and following up with them regularly.

6. Work on spreading the trust

Remember my very first point on building employer-employee trust even when distractions are bound to happen?

This whole issue of trust deserves its own strategy in your agenda.

After the pandemic, employees have received more power and leverage when it

comes to creating change within their organization. In fact, they’re now the ones setting expectations and raising the bar. The same Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report has also found out that 6 in 10 employees are now choosing employers based on their values and beliefs.

So if you’re wondering where you can get started with trust building:

It’s through employer branding.

Simply put, how you present your company and team culture to the public. Aside from that, how you handle your recruitment and interviewing process allows you to showcase your company’s values and measure for culture fit.

This is your first chance to establish trust. Even before day one at work.

Employees that trust their employer also tend to be more motivated to take action when change is needed. This idea gives you the chance to test out your current trust levels. Are your employees taking issues to a management team they trust or are they publicly complaining because there’s just no one in the company to listen to them?

Let that sink in a bit.

Prioritize fixing trust issues within your current team. Once you’re able to hold transparent conversations with your employees and meet their expectations, a healthy team culture is much easier to find and promote. Plus, you’re setting yourself up for amazing talent retention stats.

Making sense of collaboration in hybrid workplace

I often talk about how important it is for employees to be happy at work. This is the principle that should guide your hybrid work communication plan as well: How do I make sure every individual on my team is happy?

Most often, keeping employees content in a hybrid team is a matter of:

  • Staying true to your values and promises
  • Providing not only the right resources for them to collaborate, but also the opportunities for connections to happen [even if virtual ones are the only option]
  • Treating every employee fairly and facing them with the same conditions, regardless of whether they work from home or the office
  • Being honest about the company’s performance and future changes or new expectations
  • Letting every person voice their opinion [anonymously, when otherwise difficult]
  • Facilitating career growth opportunities by prioritizing the individual, not the company
  • Clearly outlining all hybrid collaboration best practices so employees don’t have to face unprepared management orders

Back to you now!

What are your plans to improve collaboration in your hybrid workplace over the next 3 months? What about the objectives you want to hit by the end of the year? Skim through this list again to organize your priorities.

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5 Free Noise Cancelling Apps for Windows in 2024 (For Any Use Case) https://krisp.ai/blog/noise-cancelling-apps-windows/ https://krisp.ai/blog/noise-cancelling-apps-windows/#respond Mon, 29 Nov 2021 17:57:13 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=1549 Looking for a noise cancelling app for Windows? Read on for the 5 tried-and-tested noise cancelling apps currently available on Windows. Companies lose $600 billion every year due to workplace distractions. The most common among them? Background noises during meetings, webinars, and client calls.  Noise negatively affects the quality of your call or recording and […]

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Looking for a noise cancelling app for Windows? Read on for the 5 tried-and-tested noise cancelling apps currently available on Windows.

Companies lose $600 billion every year due to workplace distractions. The most common among them? Background noises during meetings, webinars, and client calls. 

Noise negatively affects the quality of your call or recording and makes it difficult to hear and understand one another, leading to further misunderstandings and even losing clients altogether. 

Over the past years, we’ve tested all of the noise cancelling solutions on the market and collected 5 of the best noise cancelling apps for Windows.

What should you look for when choosing your next noise cancelling app for Windows?

Before you make your first purchase, keep an eye on the following criteria for choosing a noise cancelling app that suits your needs:

  • Operating system availability: Many of the latest noise cancelling apps are built for Mac and iOS users first since there’s a higher demand there. So whenever you come across a noise cancelling app with the features you want, make sure it’s available on Windows too.
  • Noise cancelling accuracy: Video conferencing tools like Zoom or Google Meet come with an integrated noise suppression feature. However, the capabilities of these apps aren’t advanced as they merely lower the volume of background sounds instead of removing them altogether. For instance, when it comes to Google Meet noise cancellation, the feature is designed to minimize distracting noises, such as keyboard clicks or ambient chatter, but it may not completely eradicate them from the audio feed, leaving room for improvement in terms of achieving pristine audio quality during virtual meetings.

 

  • Use cases: If you’re recording a video or podcast, you’ll want the noise cancelling app to work as you record. Some apps only cancel noises during the editing part so you won’t be able to use them for real-time calls and events.
  • Features: At their most basic level, these apps remove background sounds for a fairly large specter. Advanced features include removing echoes, improving the quality of your voice in both real-time and for recordings, and getting insights into how long you spend in meetings to improve productivity.
  • Ease of use and learning curve: Look for noise cancelling apps that you or your team won’t have to spend hours learning how to use. Some of the solutions on this list like Krisp and SoliCall work automatically with a single click so you won’t have to spend extra hours editing the audio.

Best Free Noise Cancelling Apps for Windows

1. Krisp – best for individuals and teams

noise cancelling app for windows

Krisp is a noise suppression software that removes all background sounds during calls in real time.

It works with any conferencing, messaging, recording, and streaming app that accepts Krisp as their audio input. All you have to do is switch it on once and the tool automatically removes noises on both ends of the conversation. The Krisp widget can even tell you if there are any sounds impacting the quality of your audio so you won’t have to take a long time to prepare for a meeting or presentation.

Through a thorough noise cancellation quality evaluation, it’s evident that Krisp delivers superior performance by effectively eliminating unwanted sounds.

[demo-new]

Krisp uses a Deep Neural Network that’s trained to recognize and remove background noises, leaving only the clean human voice on the audio. The audio processing is done locally on the device, so your audio data stays secure.

Krisp for Windows is available, so give it a try and let us know what you think!

2. SoliCall – best for phone calls

Solicall is a noise cancellation app for Windows specifically designed for phone calls. It aims to improve the audio quality and cloud-based echo cancellation of your phone calls through two noise reduction technologies: profile-based and reference-based.

With profile-based noise reduction technology, the background noise is attenuated by focusing on the voice of the speaker. The app identifies the voice of the speaker and separates it from the audio signal. This innovative noise cancelling software focuses on enhancing your call experience.

Reference-based noise reduction technology removes background noise along with human voices. This means that whenever you’re in a call, the nearby conversations won’t be audible. SoliCall’s best use is for call centers where both incoming and outgoing calls won’t let nearby human voices come through.

3. Audacity – best for post-recording noise cancelling

Already have a recording and need to get that pitch-perfect sound? Audacity is a go-to choice for professional podcasters and video creators who want to remove or lower the noises on their recordings. The tool allows you to add special effects and even filter out noises that are covering up your speech. 

You can also use it to lower ambient background sounds so they’re not distracting listeners or making the conversation unintelligible. Note the feature doesn’t completely remove noises as it’s officially a noise reduction functionality that filters sounds based on volume, sensitivity, and frequency smoothing.

Compared to the other apps on this list, Audacity has a steep learning curve as it requires the user to learn how to use the functionality and choose the best noise reduction settings every time. The catch is that you have to select a noise portion within your audio to tell the app what it needs to remove throughout the rest of the audio. For best results, you’ll still have to edit all noise reduction settings.

4. Noise Blocker – best for reducing recurrent sounds on a track

Noise Blocker is a different kind of noise cancelling app for Windows as it works by pre-recording sounds you want the tool to remove during future calls or streams. Think of it as a library you build and then use to maintain clear audio.

While the tool is fairly easy to use, the process of reducing noises can get tedious as you have to record sounds you want the app to remove before the start of a call. Noise Blocker then compares news sounds during a live call to the ones you recorded ahead of time in order to prevent unwanted noises from passing through to the listener.

Some ideas for noises you can pre-record are humming sounds, keyboard typing, laptop fans, clapping, buzzes, mouse clicks, and even dog barking. This noise cancelling app for Windows works on apps like Skype, Discord, Slack, and Mumble.

5. Zoom or other video calling app with an integrated noise cancelling feature – best for use without any extra downloads

In the realm of virtual meetings and collaborations, tools like Zoom noise cancellation and Microsoft Teams noise suppression have become invaluable. This will be a perfect solution if you’re looking for a quick or temporary fix to your audio problems. Such features come by default with the free plans for these tools and require no prior setup. 

You can use them straight away by simply selecting the sound level you want to block. With Zoom, for instance, you can choose between Low (faint noises), Medium (computer fan, pen taps), and High noises (barking, typing). The Auto mode also adapts to sounds as the meeting progresses but it won’t fully remove all sounds you find distracting as there’s no AI or pre-recording feature.

These built-in noise suppression features work well for team meetings and one-on-ones. However, they don’t provide the advanced features you’d need for an online event, professional video recording, or podcast episode.

How does Krisp compare?

Each of the tools above works in slightly different ways, but if you’re looking for a go-to solution for multiple purposes, Krisp will suit all your needs. Compared to the other noise cancelling tools for Windows, Krisp ensures you’re:

  • Preventing misunderstandings during meetings as Krisp blocks background noises on both ends of a call 
  • Removing all acoustic and room echoes that could otherwise ruin your audio
  • Keeping track of meeting time to maintain peak productivity levels
  • Getting useful insights about your talk time to improve next time
  • Recording clear audio for podcasts, videos, and events in HD voice with no post-recording edits required
  • Using multiple tools at the same time through the power saving mode
  • Reducing the time your new team members need to get used to the tool as Krisp has one of the lowest learning curves on the market

You can start using Krisp for free right away for higher-quality remote meetings. The free version will cancel noise for up to 240 minutes per week. With the paid tiers, you get unlimited noise cancellation for use, so head to the Krisp pricing section to learn more.

Download Krisp For Windows

P.S. If you’re a Mac user, check out our list of noise cancellation apps for Mac.

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20+ Best Resources and Tools for Remote Workers in 2022 https://krisp.ai/blog/tools-for-remote-workers/ https://krisp.ai/blog/tools-for-remote-workers/#respond Wed, 04 Aug 2021 22:27:49 +0000 https://krisp.ai/blog/?p=8529 So you’re considering (or have started) working remotely — but which tools for remote workers should you choose? There’s a dizzying array of options from which to choose. Talk to a dozen remote workers or companies about what they consider the best tools for remote work and you’ll soon have a crazy list of options […]

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So you’re considering (or have started) working remotely — but which tools for remote workers should you choose?

There’s a dizzying array of options from which to choose. Talk to a dozen remote workers or companies about what they consider the best tools for remote work and you’ll soon have a crazy list of options to consider.

To save you time, we’ve compiled a list of resources and tools for remote work that suit multiple needs. 

Keep in mind we’re looking beyond the basic solutions to offer you the most creative and useful alternatives to platforms you might already be using. Before starting, put together a checklist of features you must have based on your team’s daily tasks so you’ll be able to shortlist the apps below.

Remote team collaboration and communication software

Without being in the same physical space, something as simple as sharing a piece of paper or asking a simple question becomes far more difficult. Solve this challenge by trying some of the following best remote software for text, voice, and video communication and remote collaboration.

Hassle-free virtual meetings, video conferencing, and chat for remote employees

Combine your remote work tools for video or audio with the best technology for working remotely. One of the vital working remotely tips and tools in any good remote work guide is to ensure clarity in the communication process. That’s just what the next remote work tools do.

Krisp

Krisp is a noise cancelling tool that blocks unwanted background sounds on both ends of a conversation, preventing misunderstandings from affecting work. Krisp works with any conferencing app you’re already using by making use of more than 2.5 thousand audio, 20,000 noise samples, and 50,000 speakers. The recording feature also lets team members share review meetings and share them with colleagues who missed the call.

[demo-new]

Flowdock

Similar to Slack, Flowdock is a remote office platform that focuses on providing chat requirements for teams. It also brings conversations, work items, and resources to one single place. This makes it easy for you and shareholders to organize tasks and discussions without resorting to switching between multiple apps.

Twist

While Slack offers a powerhouse of features, some criticize it for being too distracting for remote workers. The need to stay connected and watch for (often distracting) notifications from the real-time chat can prevent you from “getting in the zone” of deep, focused work.

Twist aims to circumvent these distractions by providing a more asynchronous approach to remote communication. It’s more akin to an organized collection of email inboxes rather than a chatroom. This makes it an interesting alternative for communication tools for remote workers.

Doodle

Part of the art of remote communication is to be mindful of interrupting your coworkers and disrupting their productivity. This calls for specialized remote work tools like Doodle that let you schedule meetings and appointments in no time. Perhaps sending a poll through Doodle is all that’s needed to see if a meeting is even necessary.

Howspace

Larger projects (like social learning, events, and workshops) aren’t always easy to manage through traditional video conferencing apps. Howspace earns its place in your managing remote worker’s toolkit, giving a platform to create programs centered around learning, organizational change, and collaborative growth.

Timezone.io

One of the more challenging parts of the transition to remote work can be collaborating across multiple time zones. Quickly see which team members are available right now with the simple interface that Timezone.io provides.

Join.me

When you need to ask your coworker a quick question, creating and scheduling a meeting through traditional conferencing software can be a hassle. Join.me lets you quickly spin up a meeting with a link to a quick video chat. This convenience makes it one of the remote work tools likely to increase the quality of your team’s communication.

Tip: You can always connect Krisp to join.me or other video conferencing tools to remove background noises in real-time. This will prevent misunderstandings and make for a complete and efficient video call experience.

[demo-new]

Store and collaborate on virtual assets and documentation

Most project management and collaboration tools include some functionality to share documentation and files. However, your remote team likely needs a more robust way to store assets and documentation in an easy-to-find and searchable place. 

Confluence

Need a wiki to centralize your team’s documentation? Look no further than Confluence, which comes with an array of quick-start templates for common document types to save you time.

Canva

Popular due to its ease of use, Canva provides diverse graphic design functionalities that anyone on your team can use. It also lets you share your images, branding, and files with other team members and is gradually adding advanced features to help replace the classic but clunky Photoshop.

Adobe Creative Cloud

If your team needs something more professional than Canva, you might want to shell out for Adobe Creative Cloud’s features. Adobe has been a mainstay in creative work for years, and you’ll find every collaboration feature your creative team needs in Adobe Creative Cloud.

Loom

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a video can be worth a thousand pictures when you’re explaining a complex topic or just need to maintain that face-to-face connection with your colleagues. Use Loom to create a quick video recording of your screen and/or face. You can use these recordings for official documentation, reports, demos, or to send explanations to colleagues and clients.

Markup Hero

Markup Hero helps you capture ideas, communicate clearly, and save time. Instantly snap and share ideas with Markup Hero’s screenshot app and image uploader. This tool for working remotely allows you to clearly communicate messages on any image or PDF with easy-to-use annotation tools. Markup Hero also has a really nice Slack integration that enables users to annotate files with one click, directly from Slack.

Project management for remote teams

Keeping track of which team members are working on which tasks can be challenging with a remote team. Staying on top of their assigned tasks, related updates, and upcoming deadlines can be even more challenging for the team members. Avoid confusion or wasted work by trying out some of these winning options for remote workforce management software.

Trello

As one of the most intuitive (and free) remote work management tools, it’s no surprise that Trello is some of the most widely-used software to work remotely from home. Simple drag-and-drop Kanban cards allow you to organize tasks, add attachments, and host discussions in a simple web interface — minimal app onboarding needed.

Todoist 

Todoist has more in common with a to-do list than a Kanban-style product like Trello. Still, this solution may be everything a small team needs — or you can just use it as a personal addition to your organization’s planning software. It provides an intuitive, quick-and-easy task list with basic collaboration features for your team and contractors.

Milanote

Milanote is primarily a visual note-taking platform but can be used to manage creative projects. It’s a perfect choice for creatives and design studios who will still be able to use classic task management features like project templates, to-do lists, and file storage.

Basecamp

No discussion of tools to manage remote employees would be complete without Basecamp, used since 2004 for managing projects. Created by a team as a way to manage their tasks, you’ll get all the necessary remote working essentials — automatic check-ins, task scheduling, group chat, etc.

Airtable

If Excel or Google Sheets aren’t enough for your business, consider Airtable. It’s a user-friendly mix of spreadsheet and a relational database, allowing complex functionality in a pleasant interface (without requiring a developer team to create a custom tool).

Tracking remote workers’ progress

Staying on top of multiple team members’ progress can be difficult when they’re scattered around the globe. One of the best tips for working remotely is to keep abreast of your team’s (and your own) progress with these handy work-from-home productivity and time tracking tools.

Toggl 

Toggl makes it easy to record how much time is spent on each task and has multiple integrations for quick one-click tracking. The tool gives you a streamlined, no-frills approach to tracking time spent on projects. You’ll also find the Chrome extension and variety of integrations handy for connecting with other work management and invoicing solutions.

And.co

And.co offers a bit more than Toggl, including tracking business expenses and handling invoices. The tool is primarily used by freelancers, but teams can also turn to it for keeping track of client contracts, sending proposals, accepting payments, and even time tracking.

Time Doctor

Toggl keeps it simple, but Time Doctor is a remote employee software that adds a few extra features that might be considered as work-from-home requirements. For example, Time Doctor records all time spent on all activities (including things like watching Netflix). It can even send a pop-up to remind a distracted remote worker to get back on task.

Tools for finding remote employers and clients

If you’re already still looking for your next dream remote role, go over the following best online resources for connecting remote workers with jobs:

  • We Work Remotely – The most popular remote jobs website for all kinds of professions and experience levels.
  • Dynamite Jobs – This is your safest choice if you want to check out new daily roles.
  • DailyRemote – This job listing website often displays opportunities that aren’t posted elsewhere, but note that most of the jobs are for U.S. citizens.
  • Remote.co – Another resource for finding remote jobs here that companies haven’t posted somewhere else.
  • AngelList – A go-to source for open positions in startups. You can also find more internships here than on the other websites.
  • Twitter – This can be a convenient resource for finding new jobs as soon as they’re out there. Use search terms like “hiring remote [your role]” or “remote job” and you’ll get in touch with your future teammates who are more than eager to get to know you.

Tip: It’s always a good idea to check out the Careers page of your favorite company. You can also reach out to them directly to see if they’re planning on hiring for your role soon. Don’t forget about the classic job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed, but use these along with the websites above and industry job boards for more diverse opportunities.

Set your team members up for success with these remote work tools

Working remotely creates some challenges — but that doesn’t mean that you or your team have to struggle with those challenges. Getting started with remote work doesn’t require you to purchase and learn a dozen new programs. 

Instead, save your focus for what matters and pick what you need from these tried-and-true tools for remote workers. You can improve the collaborative situation within your remote team with these popular remote work tools combined with our favorite working from home tips.

Did we miss your favorite app or useful resource? Let us know in the comments below and it might just make our list!

The post 20+ Best Resources and Tools for Remote Workers in 2022 appeared first on Krisp.

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