Google Meet Low-Light Mode Is Finally Coming To The Web
The age of video conferencing that begun last year has forced many people to re-evaluate not only their computers but also their rooms and home office setups. In addition to actually having a decent webcam, things like disorganized backgrounds and poor lighting add more concerns to already mentally stressed people. The former has been fixed by virtual backgrounds, which sometimes end up to be more distracting, while the latter is being addressed by automatic lighting adjustment, one that is finally coming to Google Meet on Web browsers.
Unlike at the office, we have less control over our working environment at home. From distractions to room setup to weather conditions, there are times when we don't have that much control over what our present conditions are when a video meeting starts. Video conferencing platforms have started to use AI, computer vision, and algorithms to compensate, and Google Meet is no different.
It was actually back in April 2020 when Google introduced automatic light adjustment to Meet on Android and iOS. The concept is really simple, as it uses the phone's sensors to determine lighting conditions and use AI to adjust the video feed to brighten up your day. It's a simple feature that has significant benefits not only to the user but to everyone participating in the meeting.
It's curious that it took more than a year for Google Meet to gain the same feature on its Web version. Probably Google had to resort to even smarter algorithms to determine a low-light situation since many computers or webcams don't have ambient light sensors.
This feature is available only to Google Workspace, G Suite Basic, and G Suite Business customers, and has started rolling out today. Once updated, it is enabled by default, and admins have no control over it. End users, however, can manually turn it off, and they might want to do so at certain times, for example, when there is proper lighting available, because it could affect the computer's performance when in use.