Google wants to help us with our video call meetings: Sometimes it’s hard to look good

If you often have team video calls, something very common in all companies since remote work became popular worldwide in 2020 (a virus called Covid-19 is to blame for this), you are surely tired of searching for the best position and the best framing to not look terrible on screen.

Well, all users of Google’s work ecosystem can be thankful that the company has released one of its most useful paid tools to all users: the auto-framing of Google Meet.

The video conferencing platform has revealed that its automatic framing tool will be available at all levels of the Google Workspace platform, offering more users a better representation of themselves during a call.

Google Meet’s automatic framing benefits

The tool automatically helps center users on the screen when they join a video call or meeting, ensuring they are properly framed and as visible as possible.

Google Workspace launched automatic framing in 2022, but until now, it was only available at certain levels. From now on, it will be enabled by default for all users and no administrative control will be necessary.

Google Meet’s automatic framing is now available to everyone https://t.co/KGwUT2o1PM

— The Verge (@verge) November 20, 2024

“Depending on the camera’s location, some meeting participants may be less visible than others,” the company notes in a Google Workspace update blog post. “With automatic framing, Google Meet will automatically center the video before joining a meeting to help ensure equal visibility for all participants.”

The feature is activated before the user joins the call, but the user can readjust it at any time during the meeting if they wish to refresh their appearance by hovering over the video tile and clicking on reframe.

The tool will also work better with virtual backgrounds, which previously could affect the user’s framing during a call. Google states that Meet “will continuously keep you centered when using a virtual background, ensuring that your background remains fixed and does not constantly reframe, which can be distracting.”

The news is the latest in a series of recent updates for Google Meet in recent weeks, as it seeks to be more useful and intuitive for users around the world.