Google Meet finally introduces a much-requested face editing feature! So you can look your best in video calls with skin smoothing or teeth whitening effects.
The pandemic and the rise of teleworking have propelled videoconferencing platforms to unprecedented popularity, transforming them into essential tools in our daily lives. A striking example is Google Meet, which has seen meteoric expansion, prompting the internet giant to constantly enhance its features to stay competitive with rivals such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. However, the latter are one step ahead of Google since they offer beauty effects, such as virtual makeup and filters to smooth the skin. Teams recently partnered with Maybelline to provide its users with twelve makeup looks (see our article). Practical when you don’t want to dress up while staying at home!
To catch up with its rivals, Google announced in a blog post that he will finally deploy a “face editing tool” to apply “beauty” effects during video calls, including skin smoothing, under-eye brightening and eye whitening. Everything should look fairly discreet.
Google Meet: beautiful filters
Google Meet offers two editing modes: “Subtle” mode which, as its name suggests, offers very light cosmetic adjustments, while “Smoothing” mode is a little more pronounced. Users will be able to preview the changes before initiating a call to see if they like how they look. It will obviously be possible to activate the function during a call, a posteriori. To do this, press the three dots in the lower right corner of the screen and select “Settings”. From there, simply scroll down and enable the “Edited Portrait” option in the “Video” section. Please note that portrait retouching is disabled by default; you must activate it manually.
Google began rolling out the editing feature on October 18. This will be done gradually over the next fortnight, but only on the Android and iOS versions of the application. For the web version, you will have to wait until the end of 2023.