Google is swiftly integrating AI in almost all of its products to provide a seamless experience to users. According to 9to5google, Google is conducting tests on a feature for Google Meet that utilizes artificial intelligence to generate customizable video backgrounds. This feature aims to enhance the virtual meeting experience by adding a level of personalization and creativity to video calls. Currently available to participants of Google’s Workspace Labs, this feature allows users to describe their desired backdrop, and the AI will generate dynamic images based on their descriptions.

Personalize Your Google Meet Experience with AI-Created Backgrounds

The feature was first spotted by Artem Russakovskii on Twitter. Users can transform their virtual space with AI-created backgrounds of various settings, such as luxurious interiors or magical forest glades. By offering personalized environments that match individual preferences, this feature enhances the visual appeal of virtual meetings and makes the experience more engaging.

To achieve the best results, Google recommends including details about style, mood, setting, and objects in the environment when describing the desired backdrop. Users can iterate and create different samples until they are satisfied with the result.

It is important to note that Google emphasizes the need to avoid including personal, confidential, or sensitive information when using this feature to ensure data privacy and security.

According to XDA, this AI-generated background feature is part of Google’s broader efforts to improve Google Meet, which include recent enhancements like the introduction of 1080p video resolution, picture-in-picture mode, and various video effects.

Moreover, in recent updates, Google Workspace Education Plus customers can accommodate up to 1,000 attendees and focus their meeting view on the presenter while hiding distracting participant video feeds. Noise cancellation is available on high-end Android phones, and the Google Meet app can be used on Android TV for convenient video calls.

The AI backdrop feature is currently in the testing phase and is limited to Workspace Labs testers, primarily in the US. The timeline for making this tool available to all Google Meet users remains unclear.

Google’s focus on AI in virtual meetings reflects a shift towards more personalized and immersive experiences in video communication. As businesses continue to rely on video conferencing tools post-pandemic, innovative features like this could play a vital role in enhancing user engagement and satisfaction. Google Bard has also got a very big update recently.

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(Source / Via 1,2)

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After the pandemic, the world had seemingly moved to the digital platform for various fields ranging from profession to education. This led to the rise of popular platforms like Zoom for virtual meetings and classes. Now, it seems that WhatsApp wants to offer a similar function of its own through Call Links.

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new feature on Facebook. He stated that the popular chat messaging app will be testing the encrypted video call feature, which will support up to 32 people. With Call Links, the feature will bring both audio and video call support on the platform. Similar to Zoom and Google Meet, one can simply create a call link by going to the ‘Calls’ tab on WhatsApp and selecting the option to ‘Create call link’.

After this, users will get a link that they can share with others. Anyone else simply clicking on this link will be directly added to the call. As of right now, calls on WhatsApp only support eight people at a time. So, its not quite popular for larger business meetings or education purposes. Although, this update might make it an attractive offering in the market. The messaging application is already one of the biggest chat platform in the world, so it easily has the potential to take a notable market share away from both Google and Zoom.

This could hold especially true in certain regions like India, where WhatsApp has a dominating spot when compared to other social media platforms. If the user experience and and functionality is comparable to Meets or Zoom, then we can expect a number of people to make the shift as having a single app for multiple purposes is better than cluttering your phone with multiple applications.

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Earlier today (2nd June 2022), Google announced a new change that affects two of its video calling apps. The company is planning on merging both the Meet and Duo apps on smartphones into a single platform that will be called Meet.

The Search Engine giant said that it will be make the two mobile apps into a single video streaming platform that will be used on both iOS and Android. For those unaware, Google’s Meet is a video streaming app that can have as many as 250 people in a single video chat lobby. On the other hand, Duo is a free video chat app that is built more for personal use, rather than a professional virtual meeting.

After merging Duo and Meet, the brand will also take down the Duo app completely, leaving just the Meet app in the future. Javier Soltero, the head of Google Workspace stated that “What’s been really important is understanding how people make the choice as to what tool they’re going to use, for what purpose, in what circumstance.” Both apps were based around video streaming and even had quite a similar structure as well, but while one was built to accommodate one on one interactions, the other was built for larger number of members.

In other words, integrating the two apps makes sense for Google. But Duo did have an advantage of being able to call someone rather than invite someone to join a link. Duo’s mobile app will now become the default while the Duo app will be renamed Meet later this year. The version of Meet that is live right now will now be called as Meet Original.

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Google is rolling out new features to its video communication apps. Just a few weeks ago, it announced that Google Meet is getting a background blur feature and that it has begun rolling out a screen sharing feature for Google Duo. It has now announced that the mobile app for Google Meet is getting the noise cancellation feature that has been available for the desktop version since April.

The noise cancellation feature is designed to filter out background noises. A demo video that was released a few months ago shows that the noise cancellation feature can filter out a variety of everyday sounds such as when you are unwrapping a snack, typing, or the clicking of a pen. It will even filter out the noise if you are in a public place such as the airport.

Google says the feature is rolling out today but as we have seen with recent features, this may be a server-side activation rather than an update that you can grab from the Play Store.

Seeing as it took about five months for the feature to be available for the Google Meet mobile app (Android and iOS), we presume the duration will be similar for the background blur feature which is still limited to the desktop app.

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Google has rolled out two new features for two of its apps that users should find incredibly useful. The new features are for Google Meet and Google Duo and they improve how you use both apps.

For Google Meet, users will now be able to blur their backgrounds during video calls. When you turn it on, it blurs your background in a similar fashion as a photo taken in portrait mode. The feature has been available on some other video calling apps such as Skype, and it comes in handy seeing as most folks are working from home these days and there are times your apartment is untidy or you have objects in the background.

Google says the feature is available for only devices with 4 cores and higher that support hyper-threading. Unfortunately, it is not available on Chromebooks and mobile devices. Google says ChromeOS and mobile apps will get it later.

To blur your background, you can do it right in a meeting or before a meeting. When in a meeting, all you have to do is click the More button at the bottom right and turn on background blur. To turn it on before a meeting, go to meet.google.com, select the meeting, at the bottom right of self-view, click turn o background blur and then join now.

Google says those having issues using background effects can turn on hardware acceleration. To do this, open Chrome > Settings (top left corner) > System > use hardware acceleration when available.

Google Duo

For Google Duo, you will now be able to share your screen with friends and loved ones. So if you need to browse photos or plan activities, this should be easier to do and should eliminate the need to send screenshots.

Share more moments with your friends on Google Duo.

Now you can use screen-sharing to browse photos and videos together, and plan activities all while on a video call. pic.twitter.com/6LivivvqlO

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) September 15, 2020

This feature is available for all Duo users.

UP NEXT: Google Duo is now available for Android TV

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