Windows 11’s new meeting features improve eye contact, framing, and background blur

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

New intelligent meetings features are being built by Microsoft. There are four new features that will improve background noise suppression, eye contact, framing, and background blur. Neural processing unit (NPU) chips will be used to improve video and audio in meetings when these new features arrive first.

Voice Focus will be built into Windows 11 and will be able to remove unwanted audio from meetings and calls. Microsoft's eye contact feature is being rolled out more broadly on compatible devices, instead of being limited to the Surface Pro X.

Image: Microsoft

Eye contact uses artificial intelligence to make sure you always appear to be making eye contact with the camera. It works well if you're reading notes, if the camera is off the side, or if you're just watching a football game.

Automatic framing and portrait background blur are being added by Microsoft. Automatic framing and the portrait background blur option will ensure that you are always in focus during a video call whether you stand up or move around.

Paul Barr is the principal group product manager for Windows.

Image: Microsoft

The first devices to use the new Windows 11 features will be powered by the 8cx Gen 3 compute platform from Qualcomm.

These new chips mean we can deliver these features to your device through Windows without taking away from the processing power you are using to get stuff done.

Most of these features will not appear on non-ARM devices. The processing requirements needed here are not impacted by the performance or battery life of the chips. In April, the Voice Clarity feature will be on the Surface Laptop Studio.

Voice clarity can eliminate echo and enable simultaneous audio communication across apps. It takes advantage of the studio mics on the surface laptop studio to suppress background noise and allow you to walk around a room while chatting

Microsoft is also planning additional video call improvements based on ARM chips, and Barr says these are just the start of new effects we're building to improve video calls.