Windows 11 is Getting a “New” Sound Recorder App

Continuing its slow-motion redesigning of the bundled apps in Windows 11, Microsoft said today it is “reimagining” Voice Recorder as Sound Recorder.

“Inbox apps are essential to the overall Windows experience, and we know how important these apps are to so many of your daily workflows,” Microsoft’s Dave Grochocki writes in the announcement post. “Over the past several months, we’ve updated many of these apps to match the new design of Windows 11 while also introducing exciting new features based on your feedback. Today, we wanted to introduce another updated app to Windows Insiders—the all-new Sound Recorder.”

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Sound Recorder follows previous Windows 11 app refreshes like Paint, Notepad, Photos, Snipping Tool, Media Player (formerly Groove Music), Clock, and Calculator, and a preview version of the app is now available to testers in the Windows Insider Program. The new version of the app—its called Voice Recorder today—offers a new audio recording and playback visualization, a new look and feel for the app, and support for changing the recording device and file format from within the app.

Presumably, Sound Recorder will replace Voice Recorder in Windows 11 stable sometime this year.

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Conversation 18 comments

  • bluvg

    10 May, 2022 - 4:55 pm

    <p>For as much as they’ve touted their modern (not Win32) app frameworks for Windows, the dearth of quality and quantity and update speed of their <em>own</em> not-Win32 apps is not reassuring.</p>

    • will

      Premium Member
      10 May, 2022 - 5:29 pm

      <p>Plus the way they announce things, a drip at a time over months, is annoying. It does not make the release any more exciting.</p><p><br></p><p>Just have 1-2 news events a year, make sure what you are going to ship you do so for the next release, and just focus on that. I wish they would stop this news drip cycle they have been on for the last few years.</p>

      • lvthunder

        Premium Member
        10 May, 2022 - 8:00 pm

        <p>But that’s how a lot of software works though. That’s why most of the browsers are on version 100.</p>

  • truerock2

    10 May, 2022 - 5:56 pm

    <p>Looks like junk.</p><p><br></p><p>Windows 95 Sound Recorder had a better GUI.</p><p><br></p>

    • jimchamplin

      Premium Member
      11 May, 2022 - 11:52 am

      <p>I’ll never forgive them for cancelling the Atari ST line!</p><p><br></p><p>Give me back my SWTP 6800!!!</p>

  • brettscoast

    Premium Member
    10 May, 2022 - 7:54 pm

    <p>I would have thought there were higher priorities than this, sheeeesh.</p>

    • lvthunder

      Premium Member
      10 May, 2022 - 8:01 pm

      <p>The intern had to finish their project before finals.</p>

      • bluvg

        11 May, 2022 - 2:01 pm

        <p>Ha! And if they’re a smart intern, they’ll use the project for a final, two birds one stone.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      11 May, 2022 - 3:23 am

      <p>The telemetry data must show literally dozens of Windows users using this.</p>

  • max daru

    10 May, 2022 - 8:48 pm

    <p>Every updated app ever: I don’t use it so why should I care? It looks ugly. Why don’t they devote resources to more important stuff? Windows 95/XP/7 had a better version. Why did it take so long to get this done? I use Linux because of Windoze telemetry data collection.</p>

  • jchampeau

    Premium Member
    10 May, 2022 - 10:07 pm

    <p>As far as made-up words go, I don’t entirely hate "reimagining." When Outlook went from being a desktop application to a suite of productivity applications and services, it would be reasonable to say Microsoft "reimagined" Outlook. But using that word to describe what’s happening to this app is just lying. It’s an app that records and plays back sounds. It has a record button and a play button. It got a visual refresh, but nothing about it has been reimagined.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      11 May, 2022 - 3:28 am

      <p>How about <em>MSFT reimagined a way to use 8GB more disk space for Windows! You’re welcome!</em></p>

    • Craig Hinners

      11 May, 2022 - 9:22 am

      <p>Granted. In MS’s defense, though, their blog post—the original source of this article—only uses the more restrained and accurate terms “redesigned” and “update” in the prose. “Reimagined” is only used in the headline, where one expects a bit of hyperbole, and they never describe the new Sound Recorder itself as “reimagined”.</p><p><br></p><p>In this same vein, I gotta praise MS for not writing in the blog article how “excited” and/or “proud” they are to announce this (tell me why <em>I</em> should care that <em>you</em> are “proud” or “excited”!?), and for only using “super” as a superlative once (“taking a screenshot is super easy using the WIN+SHIFT+S keyboard shortcut!” ?).</p>

    • CasualAdventurer

      11 May, 2022 - 10:10 am

      <p>Agreed. If I were to "reimagine" Voice Recorder I would see the option to simply record (like it does now) but also be capable of multi-track recording and editing. It doesn’t need to be super sophisticated but it should be something that might help you clean up audio for a ClipChamp video or Teams meeting recording.</p><p><br></p>

      • rob_segal

        Premium Member
        11 May, 2022 - 10:18 am

        <p>Windows could use its own version of Garageband. Could be a simple app, but this would be a benefit.</p>

  • SherlockHolmes

    Premium Member
    10 May, 2022 - 11:23 pm

    <p>"Inbox apps are essential to the overall Windows experience, and we know how important these apps are to so many of your daily workflows" lol. Not for one with a sound mind. </p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    11 May, 2022 - 3:26 am

    <p>I only use Windows 11 at home (for now, probably until mid-2024), then only in a VM, and that VM has no access to audio input. I’d be happy if this were as available and used as much disk storage as Esperanto spell checking.</p>

  • vladimir

    Premium Member
    11 May, 2022 - 8:22 pm

    <p>I don’t understnad why this is a priority. Isn’t windows for productivity? Please give us a decent PDF application with basic editing capabilities. It’s absurd that this is not included in windows</p>

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