How to remove background noise from a video on iPhone

Wind, traffic, an air conditioner or a noisy room can bury the one thing that matters in a video: the voice. The good news is that the noise can usually be removed after recording, right on the phone. Here is what works, starting with the free tools already on your iPhone.

Option 1: the tools built into iPhone

Recent iPhones can clean up video sound without any extra app, but only for videos they recorded themselves.

• Audio Mix in Photos (iPhone 16 or later). Open the video in Photos, tap Edit, then tap the Audio Mix button. In-Frame keeps the voices of people in the shot and lowers sounds from outside it. Studio makes voices sound as if they were recorded in a quiet room. A slider sets how much of the background stays.
• Wind Noise Reduction (iPhone 16 or later). Go to Settings > Camera > Record Sound. It reduces wind while you film and is on by default. It does nothing for videos you have already recorded.

Audio Mix works only on videos recorded with Spatial Audio on a supported iPhone. Clips from an iPhone 15 or older, from another camera, screen recordings and downloaded videos are not covered. For those, you need an app.

Option 2: remove noise from any video with Denoise.FX

Denoise.FX is our app for exactly this job. It takes out wind, traffic, air conditioning, hum and background chatter from video and audio. Everything runs on your iPhone: the video is not uploaded anywhere, and the app works in airplane mode.

1. Import the video. Open Denoise.FX and tap Photos. If the clip is in the Files app or on iCloud Drive, tap Files instead.
2. Let it clean the sound. The app starts right away in Optimal mode, the default that suits most recordings.
3. Compare. Play the clip and switch between Original and De-noised while it plays. Tap or drag the waveform to jump to the noisiest moment.
4. Adjust if needed. Open the denoise settings, change the mode or Strength and apply. The app processes the clip again with the new settings.
5. Save. Save the result to Photos or Files, or share it. Denoise.FX writes a new video and never overwrites the original.

Which settings to use

• Optimal for most videos. It is quick and keeps voices natural.
• Best quality for the hardest cases, such as wind on the phone microphone or a loud street. It takes longer to process and needs iOS 16 or later.
• Fast for very long videos or older iPhones.
• Strength removes the noise fully by default. If the voice sounds too dry or empty, lower it a little: a touch of room sound makes speech feel natural.
• High pass filter for low rumble from wind, traffic or handling noise. 80 to 150 Hz is a good starting point for voice.
• Volume boost if the voice is quiet once the noise is gone.

What noise removal can and cannot do

• It works best on noise that sits behind the voice: wind, engines, fans, hum, crowd murmur.
• The models are trained for speech. Background music is treated as noise and reduced too, so this is not the way to clean up a song or a concert clip.
• It cannot rebuild sound that was never recorded. If the voice is distorted or almost lost under the noise, the result will be clearer, but not studio clean.

Get cleaner sound next time

• Get closer to the person speaking. The phone microphone hears everything around it, and distance makes noise louder relative to the voice.
• Keep your fingers and case off the microphone holes at the bottom and top of the phone.
• Outdoors, turn your back to the wind so your body shields the phone.
• Filming in a car? See how to clean up audio recorded in a car.

Questions

Does removing noise lower the video quality?

No. Denoise.FX changes only the sound. The picture is copied as it is, without re-encoding, and the result is saved as a new video next to the original.

Can I remove background noise without uploading the video?

Yes. Audio Mix in Photos and Denoise.FX both work on the iPhone itself. Many online noise removers require you to upload the file, which matters for interviews, family videos or anything private.

Does it work on audio files and voice memos too?

Yes. Denoise.FX accepts audio from Files and Music, and it has a built-in recorder. You can save the result as MP3, WAV, M4A or CAF.

Is it free?

Audio Mix is free on supported iPhones. Denoise.FX is free to download and try; some capabilities are unlocked with a subscription, and the price is always shown in the app before you subscribe.