At the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series, I’ll confess that my eyes glazed over at quite a few points.
I’m not won over by the various AI features Samsung has been pushing for ages. Specs-wise, each model is pretty similar to its S25 counterpart, and I don’t want a Pixel-inspired scam detection mode because bad scam messages are a constant source of joy to me.
There are some neat tweaks: Privacy Display has rightfully won over some early users, and upgrades to camera modes are always appreciated, especially with the linked aperture upgrades.
But there’s one feature which piqued my interest both during the announcement event, and when I managed to get hands-on with the Galaxy S26 Ultra for testing time, it proved itself quickly.
This feature I’m talking about isn’t even a new one, but an existing one which has seen enhancements, and I’m surprised more people aren’t touting it as one of the coolest new additions to the S26 series.
I’m talking about Audio Eraser, which is ready to join the big leagues. It’s available on all three new Galaxy phones, but I’ve been testing the Ultra so that’s what I used it on.
What audio eraser is
It’s an audio modifier, but that’s not a catchy name
Audio Eraser has been around in Samsung Galaxy smartphones for several years, and the identical Audio Magic Eraser was on Pixels for a while before that.
It’s a tool that works in the phone’s apps like Gallery or Voice Recorder, and it strips out annoying background sounds from audio files you’ve recorded or received.
By ‘annoying background sounds,’ I mean things like the chatter of crowds in public, chants of the audience in a live gig or sports match, natural sounds like wind or running water.
Not annoying in general, but noises that could make a voice memo you’ve recorded hard to hear, or be distracting in a video you’ve shot.
The big upgrade Audio Eraser gets in the Samsung Galaxy S26 series is that it’s no longer limited to Samsung’s own apps, but third-party ones too.
The big examples Samsung touted are Instagram, YouTube and Netflix, but since receiving a Galaxy S26 to test, I’ve found it working in other apps, like Prime Video and Tubi.
How I used Audio Eraser
The audio I wanted to erase first
When I was shown the Samsung Galaxy S26, Audio Eraser was naturally shown off as one new feature, and we were given a live demonstration of it being used in a soccer match.
The crowd cheers and chants were completely eliminated, so you could just hear the commentator. Anyone who’s been to such a footie game in the UK knows that the crowds are loud, albeit part of the attraction.
This was a demonstration organized by Samsung, though, so when I got to test the S26 Ultra myself, I naturally wanted to test the feature in a use case of my choosing.
So I booted up YouTube, and found some sports videos with which to test out the feature myself. In this case, some AFL highlights involving my partner’s team, Richmond FC.
Initially, I was shocked by how little the mode did — until I realized that it was turned off by default. You need to swipe down to bring up the quick settings menu, and if you’re in a compatible app, Audio Eraser’s button will be there right at the top to select.
From my testing, it seems that you need to re-enable the mode every time you close the app.
When I tested the feature with AFL, the mode didn’t totally remove the background chants, but it reduced them by a dramatic degree, so they were just a whimper in the background.
There are four strengths you can select between, as well as a voice focus toggle on the highest mode, and each reduced the crowd noise in comparison to the commentators and occasional noise from the match (whistles, ref shouts, and so on).
Later, I tried the mode with a Wimbledon match. The sport generally has a quieter crowd, but you always get noisy people shouting at the players anyway, and I thought irregular loud spikes like this would be an interesting test of the feature.
Again, it worked really well. When the mode was turned on, I couldn’t hear any of these heckles or shouts. It also stripped the reverb and murmuring crowd noises almost totally out, so all I could hear was the commentators and announcer — and a lot of grunting from Federer and Nadal.
Other situations where Audio Eraser could help
And some where it couldn’t
Sports aren’t the only potential use case of Audio Eraser. I can see it being really useful in any other kind of live broadcast, which can’t receive the editing or sound engineering that packaged broadcasts can.
Twitch livestreams, Instagram stories, and news footage of breaking events all seem like the natural picks.
A benefit I noticed was in commercials. I hate how loud these can be on YouTube or Netflix, compared to the video I’m watching, and Audio Eraser made them a little quieter.
I only did limited testing, and it seems to be a side effect of the tool rather than an intended purpose, but I was still glad to take the edge off these intrusive adverts.
For all the handy benefits Audio Eraser brings, there’s also a line. As mentioned, several video streaming services offer the tool. However, I’d never use it in things like movies or TV shows.
Countless hours go into the audio mix for programming and stories like that, and it’d feel pretty offensive to all the talent involved to use a tool to remove foley or atmospheric sound that’s in there for a reason.
Exceptions perhaps exist in specific accessibility cases for certain listeners, and, for sports, some streaming services have begun dipping their toes in. But I’m not going to jump into A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and try to remove the crowd chants from that.
After 5 minutes, I still think it’s still great
I’ve only just started using the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra as my day-to-day phone, so I’m going to be testing Audio Eraser in a range of settings to see how well it fares.
But even after five minutes, I’m finding it great. As other Android Police writers are loving how Privacy Display works, Audio Eraser is my killer feature so far.
- SoC
-
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
- RAM
-
12GB / 16GB
- Storage
-
256GB / 512GB / 1TB
- Battery
-
5,000mAh
- Operating System
-
Android 16 / OneUI 8.5
- Front camera
-
12MP
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a world-first new feature called the Privacy Display, which hides the phone screen from prying eyes. The phone is lighter, thinner, and more powerful than its predecessor.
