Took the words right out of our mouths — we’re having the same issue, even after investing in better headsets for our agents to counteract this.

I can certainly understand the frustration, especially after investing in new headsets and seeing better results in Microsoft Teams.

One important distinction is that the Logitech H390’s noise-cancelling microphone and Microsoft Teams’ noise suppression are not necessarily the same thing. Teams applies additional software-based audio processing, so its performance does not automatically indicate that Talk is failing to recognize or use the headset. Talk receives the audio captured by the microphone through the browser, and nearby human voices are particularly difficult for a microphone to distinguish from the agent speaking.

I would recommend narrowing down where the background audio is entering the call:

• Confirm in the browser and operating system settings that the H390 microphone is selected, rather than the laptop or webcam microphone.
• Record a local voice sample using the H390 outside of Teams. If nearby conversations are audible there too, the microphone itself is capturing them before the audio reaches Zendesk.
• Test in another supported browser and, ideally, from a quieter location to compare the recordings.
• Run the Twilio network test at networktest.twilio.com from each affected workstation to confirm the local browser, connectivity, ports, jitter, and packet-loss conditions.

The network test is still worthwhile, although network quality would be more likely to cause distortion, delay, or dropped audio than clearly transmitted background conversations. Zendesk recommends wired connections and wired headsets, along with using the Twilio test when troubleshooting Talk call quality.

For a shared call-centre floor, it may ultimately require headsets with highly directional boom microphones designed specifically for dense contact-centre environments, acoustic treatment or additional endpoint-level noise-suppression software. “Noise cancelling” on a headset often refers primarily to reducing steady ambient noise, not completely removing other people speaking nearby.

That said, if the same issue can be reproduced across multiple computers, browsers, networks, and headset models, I would document those test results and open a Zendesk support case with example call IDs. That gives the Voice team something concrete to investigate and also helps distinguish a local capture issue from a broader limitation in Talk’s browser-based audio processing.

Dear Brandon and Zendesk Support,

Thank you for your detailed response. We appreciate the time taken to provide recommendations. However, I feel the core concern raised throughout this support case has not been directly addressed.

After reviewing your response, it appears the focus has shifted towards validating our local environment rather than investigating the reported limitation within Zendesk Talk itself.

I also noted that the discussion titled "Native Noise Canceling issue" was acknowledged approximately six months ago, with multiple customers reporting the same behaviour across various premium noise-cancelling headsets. Given the number of similar reports, it is difficult to accept that this is purely an isolated hardware or environmental issue.

Regarding the recommendations provided:

1. Confirm the correct microphone is selected

This has already been verified.

The Logitech H390 headset is correctly configured as both the input and output device within Windows, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and during both Microsoft Teams and Zendesk Talk calls. We have attached screenshots confirming these settings.

2. Record a local voice sample using the H390

We understand the purpose of this recommendation. However, I would like to point out that your own support team regularly uses Zoom meetings while remotely investigating reported issues.

During these Zoom sessions, the audio quality has consistently been clear, with none of the excessive background conversations or voice clarity issues experienced during Zendesk Talk calls.

Likewise, Microsoft Teams browser-based calls perform exceptionally well using the same computers, the same headsets, the same network, and the same physical environment.

This demonstrates that the hardware is capable of delivering significantly better results under identical conditions.

3. Test another supported browser

This testing has already been completed.

The issue has been reproduced using both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, both of which are Chromium-based browsers officially supported by Zendesk Talk.

The behaviour remains consistent regardless of browser.

4. Run the Twilio Network Test

We acknowledge that running the Twilio Network Test is good practice for validating latency, jitter, packet loss, browser compatibility, and connectivity.

However, this test is not designed to evaluate microphone noise suppression or determine whether browser-based audio processing features are being utilised.

Network quality may explain distortion, delays, or dropped audio, but it does not explain why surrounding conversations are transmitted so clearly while using Zendesk Talk.

Our concern is specifically regarding background noise suppression and microphone audio processing, not network performance.

Furthermore, I would like to address the comparison made with Microsoft Teams.

Your response correctly states that Microsoft Teams applies additional software-based noise suppression while Zendesk Talk primarily relies on raw microphone input through the browser.

This, in itself, highlights the concern.

The successful testing we performed was not using the Microsoft Teams desktop application. The testing was conducted using the browser-based version of Microsoft Teams, where browser audio settings clearly expose options such as background noise suppression. We have attached screenshots illustrating these browser-based features.

If browser-based communication platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom can successfully apply modern audio processing and significantly reduce background conversations, it raises the question of why Zendesk Talk cannot provide a comparable experience.

This appears to be a platform capability rather than an issue with our environment.

Additionally, while we acknowledge that network quality can influence call performance, it is concerning that even on high-bandwidth, stable internet connections we continue to experience poor audio quality, excessive background noise, and other call issues within Zendesk Talk, whereas other browser-based communication platforms operate without these problems under the exact same conditions.

At this stage, we respectfully request that this case be reviewed from a product capability perspective rather than continuing to focus solely on environmental validation.

The evidence collected demonstrates that:

• The issue is reproducible across multiple users and multiple workstations.
• The issue is reproducible across multiple supported browsers.
• The correct audio devices have been verified.
• The same hardware performs significantly better in browser-based Microsoft Teams and Zoom sessions.
• Similar concerns have already been reported by other Zendesk customers over several months.

We believe this warrants further investigation by the Zendesk Voice Engineering team to determine whether improvements can be made to Zendesk Talk's browser audio processing, microphone handling, or native noise suppression capabilities.

We remain happy to provide additional call recordings, Call IDs, timestamps, browser versions, and any further diagnostic information required to assist your engineering team.

We appreciate your continued assistance and look forward to a response that addresses the platform capability itself, rather than reiterating environmental troubleshooting steps that have already been completed.

Kind regards,

Pavan Singaraju
Operations Manager


 

Noise Cancelling Issues – HOLA – We Found a Solution
 

After immense disappointment and multiple tickets raised with the Zendesk team, we have been waiting for a meaningful resolution regarding the noise-cancellation capabilities within Zendesk Talk.

What makes this particularly frustrating is the timeline.
 

This issue has been on the Zendesk radar for approximately 6 months. We spent around 2 months building and configuring our entire contact-centre environment around Zendesk, and once our agents started taking live calls, we experienced the background-noise issue firsthand. Ultimately, our technical team found a practical solution within just 2 days of testing a third-party application.
 

HOLA — We Found Krisp!
 

After exhausting our troubleshooting options, our team decided to take one final leap of hope and look outside the Zendesk ecosystem for a solution that could potentially address the background-noise problem.

That's when we discovered Krisp — an AI-powered noise-cancellation application that operates at the device level and removes background noise, room echoes and other voices from live audio in real time.

A BIG shout-out to our Operations Team – Technical Analyst, Sathya Vardesh, for identifying and testing this application.

Thanks heaps, mate!

What started as a final attempt to solve our issue has turned into something that has genuinely relieved our team and, importantly, given our directors confidence in the decision we made to build our contact centre around Zendesk.
 

Why We Chose Zendesk
 

We are sharing this not as a reflection of our overall experience with Zendesk, which has been very positive in many respects, but to highlight an important issue we believe deserves attention.

There are many softphone and CRM platforms available in the market, including Genesys, Five9 and others. After evaluating different options, we were genuinely impressed with Zendesk's all-in-one interface, real-time capabilities, inbound and outbound calling and omnichannel routing.

We decided to proceed with Zendesk and build our entire CRM and contact-centre operation around it.

And honestly, we enjoyed building our Zendesk environment.

Over the last two months, our team has invested significant time designing workflows, forms, views, reporting and operational processes around the platform. The flexibility Zendesk provides allowed us to build the environment around our specific business requirements.

The real challenge only became apparent once our agents started taking live calls from their desks in a shared office environment.

That's when customers began reporting background noise, and our agents started struggling to maintain clear, real-time conversations.

This ultimately brought us to this Community thread, where we wanted to share our experience and hopefully help other organisations experiencing the same issue.
 

6 Months vs 2 Days

This is the part of our experience that we really want to highlight.

Zendesk has been working on this issue for approximately 6 months.

We spent several months building, configuring and testing our entire contact-centre environment around Zendesk.

After exhausting the troubleshooting options available to us, our technical team identified Krisp and decided to test it in our actual working environment.

Within 2 days, we had a solution that made a significant difference to our call quality.

After 48 hours of real-world calls, we are finally relieved from the background-noise problem that we had been struggling with.

Our customers can hear our agents clearly.

Our agents can communicate without constantly worrying about surrounding conversations.

And, most importantly, we can finally have peaceful and productive conversations with our customers.
 

To Other Community Members Experiencing This

@Amanda42 @Eric22 @Hanna15 and others

If you are experiencing the same issue where customers complain about background noise and your agents are struggling with real-time communication, we would genuinely recommend testing Krisp before spending significant amounts of money replacing perfectly good headsets.

We initially considered investing in more expensive headsets and other hardware solutions.

Instead, we decided to trial Krisp with a small number of users.

It is a per-user subscription with a lightweight application installed on the agent's laptop, together with the required browser integration.

For us, the cost was approximately $10 USD per agent.

Considering the operational impact of the issue, the additional cost felt negligible.

After 48 hours of real-world testing, the difference was significant enough for us to continue using it.

A Sincere Request to the Zendesk Talk Product Team

This issue has reportedly been sitting in the backlog for approximately six months.

After exhausting our troubleshooting efforts and investing additional money in a third-party solution, we have finally managed to achieve the level of call clarity we were looking for.

We are sharing this because we genuinely believe effective native noise cancellation is extremely important for organisations operating contact centres from shared office environments.

We would ideally like to see this capability addressed natively within Zendesk Talk rather than requiring customers to rely on an additional third-party application.

The fact that a lightweight third-party application was able to make such a significant difference within two days is something we hope the Zendesk Talk Product Team will take seriously.

We genuinely look forward to seeing how this capability develops in future Zendesk Talk releases.

Our Environment

For anyone comparing their setup with ours:

• OS: Windows 11 Enterprise

• Windows Version: 25H2

• RAM: 8 GB and 16 GB machines

• System Type: 64-bit, x64

• Environment: Shared contact-centre office

• Use Case: Zendesk Talk inbound and outbound calls

• Testing: 48 hours of real-world calls

PS — This Is Not Promotional Content

This is not a promotional post for Krisp.

We have no commercial relationship with Krisp and are not receiving any benefit from sharing this.

We are simply sharing our experience because we know other Zendesk Community members may currently be experiencing the same problem.

We also wanted to acknowledge the effort of our own technical team, particularly Sathya Vardesh, for finding an alternative solution when we were running out of options.

Hopefully, this experience can help another contact centre avoid unnecessarily spending hundreds or thousands of dollars replacing headsets and troubleshooting connectivity when the underlying issue may be related to noise processing.

After six months of frustration, we can finally have clear conversations with our customers again.

And honestly — that's all we wanted in the first place.

Hey ​@msra ,

Brett here from the Zendesk Community Team. First, I want to apologize for the Talk call quality issues you and your team are experiencing. I can absolutely understand the frustration this has cauased and do know we value your feedback, regardless of whether your not you’ve decided to go with an alternative solution. 

I’d also like to thank you for taking the time to share your detailed troubleshooting steps you’ve taken to resolve this issues. This is not only helpful to us, but also other users who are experiencing similar pain points. 

I’ve passed this feedback along to the relevant product managers for their awareness. For others who are running into similar issues with call quality, please upvote this feedback and share any examples you may have in the comments. 

Thank you!