/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24016887/STK093_Google_02.jpg "% Google Meet rolls out 360-degree digital backgrounds for video calls")
As you may see within the embedded GIF, the 360-degree background will change relying on the place your cellphone or pill’s positioned. So, if you happen to transfer your cellphone left or proper, your background will modify to point out totally different surroundings. Google says customers can apply “a number of” new 360-degree backgrounds throughout video calls, together with one which exhibits a seaside and one other with a temple.
Whereas the characteristic does look fairly cool, I can see how these backgrounds may get distracting if you happen to’re on a name with somebody who’s continuously shifting their cellphone round. Nonetheless, they’re nonetheless most likely not as obnoxious as Meet’s assortment of Snapchat-like filters — which presently consists of one which turns you right into a cat and one other that places your face on a strawberry.
Final month, Google began rolling out emoji reactions for Meettogether with the center, thumbs-up, social gathering popper, clap, pleasure, astonished, pondering, cry, and thumbs-down emoji, but it surely nonetheless has a protracted method to go if it desires to meet up with Zoom’s complete library of reactions. Google’s additionally within the strategy of gradually transitioning users to the new Meet app that mixes the options of Duo, and despatched out its last warnings final month because it prepares to change customers over.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23951407/STK051_VRG_Illo_N_Barclay_5_tiktok.jpg "% TikTok ban: all the news on the US’s crackdown on the video platform")
