Google improves background blurring and replacement of Meet browser version

The browser version of Google Meet can now better distinguish between the foreground and background of a video call, making background blur more accurate, for example. 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 conversation partners from seeing what’s behind them. To do that, Meet differentiates between the background and the foreground. Google says that the browser version of Meet can now make this distinction better. As a result, the background blur or replacement should better match the person or people in the frame.

The browser version of the video calling software can now also handle the processing of Meet effects on Google servers. This feature is mainly aimed at users with relatively slow devices, which have difficulty handling real-time image processing. Meet determines 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 blur and brightness adjustment can be done on Google’s servers. Later, other securities must 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 certain Workspace business packages.

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