Krisp

Krisp solves an unglamorous problem so well that it disappears into your setup: it sits beneath Zoom, Meet, Teams and 800+ other apps as a virtual audio driver, scrubbing barking dogs, keyboard clatter and café chatter from both directions of every call. Years in, its cancellation quality is still the benchmark, and the strategy of working below the app layer means one installation covers every tool you'll ever use. The 2026 expansion is thoughtful rather than bolted-on: the AI Note Taker transcribes locally without sending a bot into your meeting — a real privacy and etiquette advantage over the parade of 'notetaker joined the call' widgets — while Accent Conversion smooths cross-border conversations in real time, and mobile apps extend everything to phone calls. Quibbles exist: the free tier's 60-minute daily cap dies mid-afternoon on meeting-heavy days, essentially forcing the (fairly priced, ~$8/month) Pro tier for professionals; the always-on audio driver won't fly on locked-down corporate machines without IT blessing; and dedicated meeting assistants still write richer, better-attributed notes. But as a foundation layer for remote work — one that makes every other tool sound better — Krisp is about as easy a recommendation as this category offers.