Chrome 104 to bring “Region Capture” for better tab sharing over video meetings

We’ve all been there. Someone shares their screen over a Meet or Zoom meeting, and suddenly, you have an endless hall-of-mirrors effect. Usually, that results in that someone having to either quickly stop sharing or disconnect from the meeting altogether. Thankfully, the most recent beta version of Google Chrome, version 104, has provided a sneak peek at a new feature that will help with this issue.

This feature, called “Region Capture,” will allow web-based video conferencing apps to crop the video track and remove content from it before sharing it remotely. Web apps can already capture video in a tab using getDisplayMedia (). However, Region Capture can do this with a new produceCropId() API that can exclude a portion of the screen, such as the portion that shows everyone connected to the meeting.

This feature has been in development since Chrome 98 but is expected to ship in Chrome 104 and is already working in Beta. This will be perfect for applications that combine content and a live video feed in one tab, as you can now do on Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Hopefully, this will help with those awkward video meetings and eliminate disruptions due to “technical difficulties.”