Google is introducing custom backgrounds for its Meet videoconferencing platform, Google announced in a blog post. If you use Meet in Google’s Chrome browser you should be able to access the feature in Chrome OS as well as on Windows and Mac laptops and desktops. The feature is “coming soon” to mobile, Google says.
There’s no browser extension needed to activate custom backgrounds; you should be able to add a background image from your own photo collection or from a library of images provided by Google that includes landscapes, abstract art and (for some reason) offices.
Google integrated Meet into Gmail in May, adding a sidebar link and making meetings of up to 100 people with no time limits available to anyone with a Google account.
According to The Verge, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that Meet supports around 235 million conferences daily, as well as 7.5 billion video calls every day. It looks like as long as people continue to use Meet, Google will keep introducing new tweaks. For now, the ability to change one’s background during a conference should be useful for many.
