Google Meet gains new features to help eliminate echo

With more people working from home than ever, many businesses and employees rely on streaming services such as Google Meet, among others. However, several technical challenges and hurdles face companies trying to rely on streaming platforms to get people together during the pandemic, and one is called echo. Echo happens during video calls or conferences when the system feeds back audio into the call making it difficult and annoying to conduct a meeting.

Typically, Google says Meet will be able to control the audio and remove the echo automatically. However, the search giant says that sometimes an echo occurs that other people can hear an echo from your device when they are speaking. It's often difficult for the person whose device is causing the echo to know it's happening. Google is implementing a new feature that will notify individual users when their system is causing an echo that others may hear on the meeting.

The notification is made using a red dot on the more options button along with a text notification. When users click on the text notification, they will be directed to the help center and provided with steps to take to help eliminate the echo. Some of the simple recommendations offered by troubleshooting include using headphones, lowering speaker volume, or muting your microphone when you aren't speaking.

There are no administrative controls for that feature, and for end-users, the future is on by default. The new feature is currently in the rollout phase, and Google is conducting a gradual rollout. It could take up to 15 days for all users to see the feature starting on August 23. The new echo control technology is available to all Google Workspace users, including G Suite Basic and Business users.