Google improves background blurring and replacement of browser version Meet

The browser version of Google Meet can now better distinguish between the foreground and background of a video call, making the background blur, for example, more accurate. Those background effects can now also be processed on Google’s servers.

As with other video calling software, Google Meet users can blur or replace the background to prevent interlocutors from seeing what’s behind them. To do that, Meet distinguishes between the background and the foreground. Google says that the browser version of Meet can now better make this distinction. As a result, the background blur or replacement should better match the person or people in the image.

The browser version of the video calling software can now also run the processing of Meet effects on Google servers. This feature is mainly aimed at users with relatively slow devices, who find it difficult to handle real-time image editing. Meet decides for itself whether the image processing takes place on the user’s device or on the Google servers. Google says this feature can save battery and reduce CPU usage by up to 30 percent.

For now, only the background blurring and brightness adjustment can be performed on Google’s servers. Later on, other effects should also be able to be processed on Google’s servers. The improved foreground/background distinction is now available to all users of the browser version of Meet. The cloud-based processing is now available for Workspace Individual users and for select business Workspace packages.

Before Google improved background replacement (left) and after. The images are from a poison.