Google is starting to roll out a new feature to make cropping a breeze when video chatting on Meet. Perfect to never be off center again.
The 2020 pandemic will at least have had the merit of forcing tech giants to considerably improve their videoconferencing tools. But if Google Meet has become, by force of circumstance, one of the most complete applications in this area, some of its functions are still buried a little too deeply in the settings. To make it easier to access cropping and adding background effects, Google is rolling out a new feature that lets you do it all…in just two clicks.
This novelty, for the moment announced on the desktop interface of Google Meet, is extremely accessible. Rather dig into the application settings in full call, you will soon just need to hover the mouse over your video feed to see contextual controls appear there. They will be very useful to you.
Google Meet gets even better
From this small dynamic menu, simply click on the three small dots displayed, then on “Crop” so that the application automatically refocuses the video stream on you. And still from these same contextual commands, you can access the background effects by clicking on the icon with the little stars. A side pane will then appear to choose the effect that suits you best (more or less marked blur, various and varied static or animated backgrounds, etc.).
If overall this new feature greatly simplifies access to these functions, and in particular to background effects, it should nevertheless be noted that automatic cropping is only accessible to some users of Google Meet. To use it, you must indeed have a Google Workspace account, or subscribe to the Google One 2 TB plan (or higher).
It should also be noted that the effectiveness of this cropping will largely depend on the quality of the webcam you are using. And for good reason, Google Meet is a priori content to zoom in your video stream to refocus you… which could lead to poor image quality if your stream does not have good sharpness at the start.
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