Global efforts to reduce social distance to slow the spread of Covid-19 have led many people to communicate with each other online, with Discord reporting a 50% increase in daily voice users in the U.S., Spain and France doubled compared to the beginning of the year, and tripled in Italy.

In addition to increasing the limit on Go Live participants from 10 to 50 (which it did in March), Discord is trying to improve the quality of its voice. And I think it has succeeded.

Discord rolled out a beta version of Krisp.ai. It is intended to reduce background noise during calls while maintaining clear audio. I tested it for a few minutes and it works surprisingly well: with Krisp's noise suppression beta turned off, my voice is picked up by the microphone, but so is the sound of other things in the vicinity, especially a noisy mechanical keyboard.

However, with the Krisp beta on, my voice comes through fine, but the noise from the keyboard does not. When I type out loud and whisper at the same time, only my voice is picked up, not the clicking of the keys.

In technical terms, this is called neat burrito. It is not perfect. Occasionally it does pick up some background noise, but it is still an impressive difference, and is ideal for open-mic gaming sessions where you are tapping keys and talking to a friend at the same time.

When joining a voice chat, which can be activated in the lower left corner of the screen, we recommend giving it a try; for more information about the Krisp beta, click here.