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A new option will now present itself at the bottom left side of the screen on Google Meet which will allow you to check your audio and video quality before joining a meeting. Additionally, you can see your network connection and make sure it’s solid.
If there’s an issue with your microphone or your camera, let’s say you’re muted, you have poor sound quality or your audio is too loud thanks to a background noise that’s amplified by your mic, you’ll be notified with a warning tip. Lastly, you can make tweaks to your lighting and where you’re sitting relative to your camera so that your camera isn’t grainy or dark.
As work from home becomes the new normal, it’s nice to see Google adding additional tools to make it more manageable. The more AI and ML tech that’s poured into bringing video calls up to par with where I feel we should be in 2021, the happier I’ll become. It’s just sad that we had to wait for this many years to invest in something that’s clearly so important! To be fair, prior to the pandemic, remote meetings weren’t as vital as they have now become.
Neither end-users nor admins will need to do anything to see these new tools appear in Google Meet. Instead, both Rapid Release and Scheduled domains will have to check for it starting today. Everyone ought to have it over the next two weeks, with the exception being standard, non-Workspace Google account holders.
It’s odd that Google continues to alternate between whether or not it brings feature parity to regular users at the same time as those signed up for Workspace. I’m not really sure if it relates to how much work needs to go into a feature before it’s ready for the masses and Workspace accounts are just guinea pigs, or if Google just thinks it unnecessary for both to have it simultaneously, so take from that what you will. The silver lining is that Workspace updates have been consistent and that can only be a good thing.
Workspace Essentials
Availability
Business Starter
Business Standard
Business Plus
Enterprise Essentials
Enterprise Standard
Enterprise Plus
G Suite Basic
G Suite for Business
G Suite for Education
Enterprise for Education
Nonprofits customers
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