Google Meet improves the background effects in its web version

To make online meetings look more professional, and you don’t have to deal with messy background effects, Google Meet has two new features.

New features that improve some of the most used functions when we make a video call.

Meet background effects enhance and add cloud processing

Most of the services and apps that allow video calls have the option of using backgrounds to protect our privacy. However, they don’t always work as expected, and background effects become a failed attempt to hide our surroundings.

Unless you stand still, and turn into a statue during the video call, the background disappears around your figure. Not only can you see what is behind you, but it is also messy and distracts the rest of the participants.

The Google team doesn’t want users to have this problem on Meet, so they’ve released an update that improves the background effects on their web version:

Background effects are now more accurate for Google Meet users on the web. Thanks to improved foreground and background separation, users can experience more accurate background blurring, background replacement, and immersive backgrounds and styles.

And a plus that is added to this update is that it benefits those teams that do not have sufficient resources to carry out this process in real time. To facilitate this dynamic, effects processing can be run in the cloud.

That is, the quality of the background effect is guaranteed, since Meet can adjust the processing of this dynamic according to the resources of the device:

Meet automatically adjusts between cloud-based and device-based effects processing to deliver the best possible experience.

And this has a second benefit, since the processing is done in the cloud to optimize the effect, the equipment we use does not spend more resources than it can provide in our video call. And just as the Google team mentions, it can save battery life and up to 30% CPU.

One detail to keep in mind is that these updates are not yet available for all the purposes that Meet offers. In a first stage, this update will be implemented when we choose “Blur background” or when the automatic lighting adjustment is activated. And on the other hand, cloud processing is not available for personal Google account users.