Pixel Recorder preps ‘Clear voice’ background noise reduction

Google is working on a “Clear voice” feature for the Pixel Recorder that will “Reduce background noise while recording for clearer speech playback.”

About APK Insight: In this “APK Insight” post, we’ve decompiled the latest version of an application that Google uploaded to the Play Store. When we decompile these files (called APKs, in the case of Android apps), we’re able to see various lines of code within that hint at possible future features. Keep in mind that Google may or may not ever ship these features, and our interpretation of what they are may be imperfect. We’ll try to enable those that are closer to being finished, however, to show you how they’ll look in case that they do ship. With that in mind, read on.

Strings in version 4.2.20241001.701169069 detail how “Clear voice” will “Keep human speech and remove background sounds.” It only works with your phone’s internal microphone and Mono audio: “External mic and stereo are not supported.” Google refers to this feature as “hdmic.”

Clear voice is not yet live after sideloading the latest version of Pixel Recorder, with a server-side component required.

• Clear voice
• Reduce background noise while recording for clearer speech playback. External mic and stereo are not supported.
• Keep human speech and remove background sounds. Learn more in Settings.
• This action requires mono audio. Please change your audio channels to mono.
• Clear voice is off for new recordings

In terms of 2024 updates, Pixel Recorder only saw a handful. The biggest was Summarize being able to work on longer transcripts thanks to Gemini Nano with Multimodality on the Pixel 9 series. The phone app also got a “Record” app shortcut.

The other big event was Recorder coming to the Pixel Watch 3 and then older models to allow for wrist-based recordings.

Thanks to JEB Decompiler, from which some APK Insight teardowns benefit.