Short: For anyone looking to improve their video editing skills without diving into pro-level complexity, Microsoft has some neat new features for its native video editor, Clipchamp. The team just announced a pair of powerful but easy-to-use tools—noise reduction and background removal—that should help the average person create more polished videos.
Clipchamp’s noise reduction allows users to automatically filter out unwanted background noises like wind, crowds, and other ambient sounds, turning a complicated editing process into something users can fix with the flick of a switch.
To use it, simply upload a video to Clipchamp, go to the audio panel, and enable the noise reduction option. Of course, users can also turn this option off if they want to retain ambient noise. The tool works with pure video and audio files by separating the streams, making it more versatile for those who often work with separate video and audio tracks.
The other feature is background removal for video clips. It’s similar to the background replacement tools in apps like Zoom. Users can digitally isolate the foreground subject and objects from a video and then insert a new image or even another video clip as the background. Microsoft suggests that users could create fun stickers or graphics by removing the background from footage with a foreground subject.
Of course, both tools are powered by AI, because what isn’t these days? What’s really cool, though, is that they’re not just available on Clipchamp’s paid tier. Microsoft is releasing them as a free update for both personal and work account holders.
These basic AI features are just the beginning. Microsoft says it will soon introduce AI-powered video creation tools that can automatically create a complete video—with scripts, stock footage/audio, graphics, transitions, music, and even voiceovers. The AI-created project is then opened in Clipchamp for editing before being exported. While the timing could change, Microsoft has planned this feature for a September release as part of its 365 roadmap.
