Windows 11 is getting native support for eye correction, noise suppression, and more in video calls
New camera effects that can be accessed system-wide are coming.
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What you need to know
Microsoft has today announced that it’s planning to introduce several new features designed to enhance the video calling experience on Windows 11. Unveiled as part of itshybrid work event, these new features include native support for eye correction, background blur, automatic framing, and noise suppression on supported devices with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU,) just like theSurface Pro X.
Because these features are being built directly intoWindows 11, all of these enhancements will work in any app that takes advantage of an NPU. This means it’s not just Microsoft Teams that will support these new camera features, as other apps like Slack or the built-in camera app can take advantage of them as well. Microsoft highlights theLenovo ThinkPad X13swith a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 as one of the first devices shipping with an NPU that supports these new features.
Having a system-wide, native version of these camera features and effects is going to be great for those who frequent in apps that don’t already have these effects built-in. While most video calling services have built-in blur effects and auto framing, many don’t have noise suppression, so that’s going to be super useful for people in loud environments. More devices are expected to ship with a dedicated NPU over the coming months.
So far, Microsoft touts only the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s as having a NPU built-in, though we suspect the Surface Pro X also has one given it’s also based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and already has eye-correction features. We’ll be interested to see if Intel and AMD PCs also jump on the NPU bandwagon in the future. Microsoft does say that a new feature, called voice clarity, is coming to Surface Laptop Studio soon.
These announcements arrive as part of Microsoft’shybrid work eventtaking place right now. The company has also unveiled plans tointegrate Windows 365 cloud experienceswith the local Windows 11 desktop, in addition to addingnew camera effect featurespowered by dedicated neural processing units in compatible PCs. Finally, it’s also highlightingnew security advancesin Windows 11 for commercial customers.
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Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch onTwitterandThreads
