Google has started offering 360-degree panoramic backgrounds for video calls in its Google Meet instant messaging app in apps on Android and iOS. The company announced the feature last month, but it's available to users starting today.
The new background relies on the phone's gyroscope to move the background based on the user's movements, giving a realistic impression of where the user appears in the background.
The new wallpapers are part of a series of immersive wallpapers supported by the app last year that feature animated elements such as the movement of rain and sun that correspond to the time zone of the city and the weather in which the user is located.
In addition to wallpapers, Google also announced a new feature for Google Chat, interactive widgets, cards with checkboxes, radio buttons or drop-down menus that can be used to activate options such as posting polls or making choices, among other things. It appears as a drop-down list in the chat window. Developers can modify maps to suit users' needs. This service is available to paid subscribers of Google Workspace, while 360 Backends is open to all users.
Last month, the company announced a number of new features for Google Meet, including the ability to interact with emoji in video calls, improved camera lighting, and other call management options.
It's worth noting that Google Meet, the company's text and video chat service, which first launched as Hangouts Meet in 2017, was then limited to companies that relied on Google's G Suite business suite. The service has since gone through many changes, becoming available to all users in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and was renamed Google Meet in 2021, adding a number of features such as noise reduction, low-power lighting modes, and the ability to blur the background. And in 2022, Google will merge the Google Duo phone video calling service with the Google Meet service, and change the name of the phone application from Duo to Meet.