As remote working and distance learning can put heavy demand on a home network's bandwidth, Google has updated Chrome OS to ensure that video conferencing software runs smoothly on Chromebooks even when a user has other apps open.
Students and business users alike have grown accustomed to multitasking and it has become increasingly common to be in a Google Meet video call while having a Google Doc or Sheet open in the background. However, video quality can take a performance hit with too many apps running or when a user has a particularly demanding app opened.
For this reason, Google has improved how Meet videos are streamed to make it so that users can still see everyone in a video call using features such as grid view without affecting the performance of other apps on their systems.
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At the same time though, the search giant has also made changes to Meet so that the software will now adapt intelligently to a user's device, network and workflow. This means that if a user wants to take notes in Google Keep while on a video call, Meet's video resolution or frame rate may be decreased slightly so that video performance doesn't suffer as a result. Meet also now adapts to the speed of a user's network by temporarily turning off some videos so that users won't be interrupted if other members of their household are connected to the same network.
Chromebook video calls
In addition to its recent improvements to Meet, Google has also improved the camera and video performance and efficiency of Chromebooks by making it so that audio and video data don't require unnecessary processing. This could help productivity as user's Chromebooks will have more processing power available for other tasks while in a video call.
While many organizations and schools use Meet, others use Zoom which is why Google and Zoom's engineering teams have been collaborating on service enhancements for devices running Chrome OS. Just like with Meet, Zoom will now adjust video performance based on the devices in use and what participants are using their devices to do.
Whether you're studying or working from home on a Chromebook, you'll now be able to do more with your device while still being able to keep in touch with your co-workers or classmates.
- We've also rounded up the best Chromebooks
