Pixel Recorder app in line for a background noise-canceling upgrade

Noisy cafes, bustling streets, or the neighbor’s enthusiastic lawn mowing — these have been the arch-enemies of clear voice recordings for years. But Google might have a new trick up its sleeve. According to an APK Insight teardown by 9to5Google, the latest Pixel Recorder update is preparing to roll out a feature called “Clear voice” — and it sounds like a dream for anyone who records on the go.

Clear voice is designed to do exactly what it says on the tin — keep your voice front and center while sweeping pesky background noise under the rug. Google describes the feature as being able to “reduce background noise while recording for clearer speech playback.” Whether it’s a chat, an interview, or a random thought you’re mumbling into your phone, this feature could be a game-changer.

For now, Clear voice only plays nice with your Pixel phone’s internal microphone and supports mono audio. If you’re dreaming of hooking up your fancy external mic or working in stereo, this feature might leave you hanging for now.

The feature isn’t live yet, even if you sideload the new 4.2.20241001.701169069 version of the Pixel Recorder app. Like many Google features, it looks like a server-side update is keeping this one under wraps until it’s ready for prime time. But that hasn’t stopped 9to5Google from digging into the nitty-gritty, uncovering code strings like:

• “Keep human speech and remove background sounds.”
• “External mic and stereo are not supported.”
• “This action requires mono audio. Please change your audio channels to mono.”

The Pixel Recorder hasn’t been hogging the spotlight with tons of updates since picking up support for 28 more languages, but what we’ve seen has been pretty slick. Most recently, the Pixel 9 series flexed its Gemini Nano-powered muscles to let the Recorder app summarize longer transcripts like a champ. Recorder also made its debut on the Pixel Watch 3, letting users record straight from their wrist — and yes, older Pixel Watches didn’t get left behind.

For those who thrive on quick shortcuts, the “Record” app shortcut has been another neat addition to simplify hopping into your next session.

With “Clear voice” lurking in the code, Pixel Recorder’s future looks promising. Whether you’re jotting down ideas or playing amateur podcaster, this feature could make noisy backgrounds a thing of the past — at least when it finally goes live.