Enhance Recording & more coming to Voice Memos in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur

iPhone Voice Memos (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

The iPhone, iPad, and Mac will get an enhanced Voice Memos app.
The feature will remove echoes and background noise.
New folders, smart folders, and more will also be added.

Apple announced iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur during its WWDC event last week but as ever some changes couldn't get as much attention as others. The Voice Memos app is a good example of that with some new features coming out of the woodwork now people are testing the first round of betas. Top of the list is a new Enhance Recording feature that promises to reduce background noise and echoes.

It's clear why such a feature would be beneficial to the Voice Memos app and anything that makes memos easier to listen to is always a good idea. The feature was first spotted by Federico Viticci who pondered whether it could also be used for podcasting.

Voice Memos in iOS 14 has an 'Enhance Recording' feature that reduces background noise and echo to make voices more clear.

Kind of fun to imagine if Apple were to use this for Podcasts down the road... pic.twitter.com/GuqDsNYGsAVoice Memos in iOS 14 has an 'Enhance Recording' feature that reduces background noise and echo to make voices more clear.

Kind of fun to imagine if Apple were to use this for Podcasts down the road... pic.twitter.com/GuqDsNYGsA— Federico Viticci (@viticci) June 30, 2020 June 30, 2020

As 9to5Mac points out, there's more going on in these updates than that, though. Users will finally be able to put memos into folders with a smart folder feature automatically sorting them based on whether they were recorded on an Apple Watch etc. Users will also be able to favorite specific recordings, too.

Apple has already released betas of iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and macOS Big Sur to developers with public betas set to arrive next month. Everyone else will have to wait until September or thereabouts before they can enjoy everything these updates have to offer.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.