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Welcome to the Workspace Sessions. Workspace Sessions brings you the latest from Google Workspace, the Google Admin Console, and all things related to Enterprise and Education from the world of Google.
Nearly four months ago, Google brought video backgrounds to Meet on the web with the promise that the feature would be arriving on mobile “soon.” While soon may be relative in some cases, in the tech world anything outside of a month doesn’t feel like “soon.” Oddly enough, the video background feature did arrive on mobile back in August but it was iOS only and not Google’s own Android operating system. While it isn’t clear what held things up, Google is finally rolling out the video background feature to Google Meet for Android.
In addition to replacing your Google Meet background with a static image on web and mobile, you can now replace your background with a video. At the moment, you can select from six Google made videos such as a classroom, a party, a beach and more — more options will be available. This feature is already available on Google Meet on web and iOS.
Google Workspace Blog
The “new” background video feature is just one of many features added to Google Meet over the past year and a half as more and more users embrace the virtual meeting space. Remote learning and working from home has changed the entire landscape of video conferencing and now that the necessary features are all in place, additions like this can give Meet some polished edges to make it more user-friendly and nice to use. According to the blog post, the update will make its way to all Meet users eventually. For now, I was only able to access video backgrounds on my personal account but it was absent from our company Workspace account. The rollout began on September 28th and users can expect to see video backgrounds arrive over the next two weeks.
Rollout pace
- Rapid and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout to eligible devices (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on September 28, 2021
Availability
- Available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers
- Available to users with personal Google accounts
This installment of Workspace Sessions is sponsored in part by CTL. CTL is an industry leader in the deployment and management of Chrome and Chrome OS hardware. Headquartered in the USA, CTL designs and purpose builds Chrome devices specifically to meet the needs of its customers. Find out more about CTL here.
