Google Meet adds support for custom backgrounds
Developers at Google continue to enhance their own video conferencing service Meet, adding new features that can grab the attention of users. This time around, the service got support for custom backgrounds, a feature long supported by Zoom, Meet’s main competitor.
Previously, Meet users could blur the background, but now it can be completely replaced with an image. Images from the collection offered by the service or some pictures uploaded by the user can be used as a background.
According to reports, the new feature is currently available in Chrome OS, as well as in the Chrome browser for Windows and macOS platforms. The distribution of the new feature has just begun, so now it may not be available to all users of the Google video conferencing service. To manage backgrounds, it is proposed to use a new tool that is available in the preview window, as well as during a conversation in the form of a corresponding icon on the service toolbar. After clicking on this icon, the user can choose the degree of background blur, activate one of the images offered by the service, or upload their own image.
Despite the fact that the ability to change the background is currently only available in Chrome OS and the Chrome browser, the developers promise to add a similar feature to the Meet mobile apps for Android and iOS at a later date. Thus, mobile versions of Google Meet are still lagging behind its main competitor Zoom, in which the background change function has been supported for a long time.
