7 kinds of methods, such as boiling, steaming, alkali, acid, microwave, enzyme and repeated freezing, were used to soft the edible areca. Comparing to the control group, studied the effects of different softening methods on chewiness, slagging, arecoline content, TPA test, five needles puncturing test and taste index of edible areca. Results: steaming (88.1 points), alkali (85.3 points) and microwave (83.2 points) had the highest chewiness score; control (84.7 points), boiling (80.7 points) and freezing (78.8 points) had the highest slaggingscore; control (4.90%), freezing (4.49%), alkali (4.17%) and acid (4.14%) had the higher content of arecoline; TPA result showed that enzyme, microwave, steaming and alkali had the best softening effect; from the five needle puncturing test, microwave, alkali, acid, enzyme and steaming had the best softening effect; the taste index analysis showed that boiling and steaming can remove acid, bitterness and astringency, but will reduce the umami, microwave and freezing had little influence on flavor, the alkali can remove acids, increase saltinessand umami, but will bring the bitterness and astringency, while acid bring the acid and bitterness, and enzyme have slight effect on remove acid and astringency. In summary, steaming, microwave, enzyme and alkali have the characteristics of softening effect and little influence on flavor, which is more suitable for practical production.