'Doritos Silent' lets you munch on Zoom without angering coworkers

Doritos has admitted that its ultra-crunchy chips aren't exactly workplace-friendly. They're far too distracting for Zoom calls and desk-side munching.

Now, you could just — you know — not eat Doritos while you're on the job. Or better yet, swap them for something quieter, like a chewy granola bar or a banana. But of course, that'd be bad for business. So Doritos came up with a solution. Say hello to "Doritos Silent."

What is Doritos Silent?

Doritos Silent, according to The Washington Post, is a crunch-cancellation app designed to mute the sound of your chip-chomping teeth.

The AI was trained exclusively with Doritos, but works with other crunch sounds, too. Credit: Doritos

“It works on anything that accepts a microphone,” said Lead Developer Dylan Fashbaugh of Smooth Technology, which teamed up with Doritos to create the app that launched in early November.

Fashbaugh revealed that he "got a lot of people [approximately 500 participants] to crunch Doritos into a microphone" to teach an artificial intelligence (AI) model what Doritos crunching sounds like, so it could isolate it.

"We took the sounds of lots of us talking and other people talking, and mixed those together with the crunch sounds so we could generate an AI that could learn the sound of crunching and voicing," he said.

The AI that underpins Doritos Silent was trained exclusively with Doritos, but works with other crunch sounds, too. In other words, Doritos Silent will mute you whether you're chomping on Lays, crackers, or raw vegetables.

Doritos Silent targets gamers

The Washington Post says Doritos Silent can remove distracting chewing sounds from "voice chat, Zoom, or any call that uses headphones." However, the app's main target is gamers.

“Crunch is one of the most distracting features that could throw someone off their game,” said Mustafa Shamseldin, chief marketing officer of international foods at PepsiCo, the parent company of Doritos.

Fashbaugh, a gamer himself, concurred with Shamseldin, adding that he's all too familiar with the frustrations of dealing with other gamers rudely chomping on chips. They're a fun, stimulating snack for gamers, but at the same time, they're distracting.

I know what you're thinking: The company could roll out less crunchy Doritos. In fact, the company attempted this in 2018, dubbing it a "chip for women." However, as you might have guessed, that didn't go over well.

"Instead of having to launch new Doritos, we could actually solve that pain point with a technology," said Fernando Kahane, Doritos' head of global marketing. Consequently, the Doritos Silent app.

Doritos Silent is only available on Windows PCs for now, but it's poised to roll out to more devices in the future.