Windows 10 has a built-in Voice Recorder app, intended for creating simple recordings from a connected microphone. Microsoft is now overhauling the app for Windows 11, with a new name: Sound Recorder.

The existing Voice Recorder app is about as bare-bones as you can get, with no option to change input devices (it’s hard-wired to the default Windows audio input), no file format options, no automatically-generated text, and so on. It has needed an update for a long time, and now a replacement is available in the Windows Insider Dev Channel.

Microsoft wrote in a blog post, “you’ll notice that there is a beautiful new visualization for audio during recording and playback to complement the new look and feel of the app. We’ve also added support for changing your recording device and file format from within the app, which were among the top requested features in Feedback Hub.”

The new app definitely looks much more impressive than the current Voice Recorder, with both light and dark themes and a waveform display. According to @ChangeWindows on Twitter, the new app has a milliseconds display, an audio input switcher that is separate from the system default, and new playback speed options. You can even import recordings captured with other tools. M4A, MP3, WMA, FLAC, and WAV all supported, with three audio quality settings to choose from.

But perhaps the biggest functional change can be found in Settings. You can now change the recording format between m4a, mp3, wma, flac, or wav with 4 audio quality settings (auto, best, high and medium). pic.twitter.com/PhL4YRM80K

— ChangeWindows (@ChangeWindows) May 10, 2022

Microsoft has been updating many other built-in Windows apps with new features and fresh designs. Paint, Notepad, Photos, and the Snipping Tool all received major updates that bring them in line with the look and feel of Windows 11. More recently, Microsoft turned the outdated Groove Music app into the new Media Player, which is continuing to receive new features (like CD playback).

The new Sound Recorder app is available for testing for Windows Insiders on the Windows 11 Dev Channel. It’s not clear yet when the new app will roll out to everyone with Windows 11, but when it does, it will replace the older Voice Recorder app.

Source: Microsoft