Even if you’re in a cubicle far from a coworker who is typing loudly on a keyboard, taking calls and participating in video conferences in noisy environments is never ideal. However, unidirectional headset mics and dynamic noise-canceling algorithms built into video conferencing tools make life easier. This is where Google Meet comes in because it does an excellent job of shutting out the noise thanks to its ambient noise suppression. However, with a new function, you’ll be able to tell when it’s actually working hard.
The business has unveiled a new visual cue for when Meet has turned on noise reduction in a blog post on the Google Workspace website.
If you enable noise cancellation, the voice indicator has three different states: if it’s not visible, your microphone isn’t picking up any sound; if a “Reducing noise” pop-up slides out from the indicator, Google Meet is filtering out a burst of noise so that participants can only hear your voice; and finally, if you see a pulsating ring around the indicator, Meet is actively cancelling out ambie; this pop-up should only appear once per meeting The amount of noise is thus shown by the size of the ring.
Only when noise cancellation is turned on will the new noise indicator be shown. The function is now live on Google, and by the end of August, it ought to be accessible to everyone who qualifies. For users of low-tier Google Workspace and Business accounts as well as personal Google accounts, Google Meet’s noise metre won’t be visible. Customers of Google Workspace Business Standard, Workspace Business Plus, Workspace Individual, and Workspace Enterprise are the only ones who may use it.
Another recent update improves background-foreground separation when employing blur effects and video backdrops, notably for Meet users in specific Google Workspace companies.