Zoom’s custom background feature is convenient for many people, enabling them to create a virtual background to cover their real home office environment.
Therefore, this feature has been adopted by more productivity platforms, the latest being Google’s Meet.
Google Meet has begun rolling out custom backgrounds to users on Chrome OS, Windows and Mac. The only thing is that you must use Google’s Chrome browser to use this feature. Mobile apps are not yet supported, so now, if you want to use this feature, you must use the web version.
Like Zoom, Google Meet has its own custom background library. The available collection includes images of different office spaces, landscapes and abstract backgrounds. In addition, Google Meet allows you to upload and use your own image as a custom background, so the options are limitless.
The best thing is that you don’t need any other extensions or software to activate this feature. Google Meet’s custom background feature is off by default, so remember to manually enable it before or during the next video call.
Google plans to give administrators control over how to use this feature in the future. Google Console administrators will be able to control whether users can use this feature, similar to the features currently available to G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education users.
This feature is being rolled out in phases; you may need to wait at least a week before you can use it. According to the company’s CEO Sundar Pichai (Sundar Pichai) in a recent conference call, in the third quarter, Google Meet held an average of 235 million meetings per day.
