Video calls in Google Meet are about to get a bit more entertaining as Google has announced that video backgrounds are now rolling out to its video conferencing software.
The search giant first added the ability to use custom backgrounds in Meet in October of last year as it tried to catch up with rivals Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
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Now though, Google Meet users will be able to replace their background with a video in addition to using a static image. However, at the moment, users can only select from three Google made videos that show a classroom, a party and a forest but more options will be available soon.
Google Meet video backgrounds
In addition to making video calls more fun and allowing you to show more of your personality, using a custom background or a video background for that matter can help hide your surroundings in order to protect your privacy.
Video backgrounds are now rolling out to Google Meet users around the world and Google expects its rollout of this new feature to be completed by mid-June. While video backgrounds will first be available when using Google Meet on the web, the company is also planning to make them available on mobile in the coming months.
In order to get started using video backgrounds in Meet, you'll need to be running Chrome version M87 or higher which you likely already are since this version of Google's browser was released in November of last year.
It will be interesting to see what other video backgrounds Google will release in the future and whether or not the company makes it possible for meeting participants to use their own videos to create custom video backgrounds.
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