Struggling to see your colleagues on a video call due to bad lighting could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new update from Google Meet (opens in new tab).
The video conferencing (opens in new tab) service has upgraded its web platform with a new tweak which it hopes will lead to improved visibility for users everywhere, especially as the world enters a new age of hybrid working (opens in new tab).
Google Meet says the update (opens in new tab) will now automatically detect when a user appears underexposed on a call, and will enhance the brightness of their feed in order to make them more visible.
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Into the light
The update should be good news for those teams balancing a mix of office work and remote working as companies around the world look to bounce back from the pandemic.
Juggling such a range of settings can be a challenge for video conferencing tools, and the move comes after Google introduced low-light mode for Meet on its iOS and Android mobile apps in April 2020, just as the hybrid working boom was beginning.
The feature, which will be available as a default, has already begun rolling out now, and will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
Although there's no admin controls needed, users will be able to switch it off if they find it affects their device's performance.
With video conferencing set to remain a central part of our working lives going forward, Google has pushed several recent updates to Meet as it looks to take on competitors such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
This includes the launch of a new Progressive Web App (PWA) for Google Meet (opens in new tab), which includes all of the same features as the web tool, but offers easier discovery as well as helping to streamline your workflow by eliminating the need to switch between tabs.
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