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Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

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Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#241

Post by rossjudson »

rplnt wrote: post #239
tantalor wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate your criticism? Meet seems fine to me.

Basically what other comments suggested. The popup menu that shows every time I move with the cursor and covers part of the screen. Can't be hidden on demand. Shows status I can't see without opening it (and covering part of the screen). Can't change my mute status without opening it (and covering part of the screen) or using a very obscure shortcut.

I am confused. The microphone button is on the bottom bar, is clearly available at all times, and can always be clicked-on. You are using Google Meet within a browser?

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#242

Post by wffurr »

tsycho wrote: post #220

Having used both Zoom and Meet extensively now for the past 6 months, my experience is: 1/ Your internet connection, especially upload bandwidth and latency matter a lot. 2/ Zoom's desktop app performs very well, but its web version is atrocious. Not just because of the dark patterns they use to force you to install the desktop app, but also its performance is terrible compared to its desktop version, as well as wors…

> 1/ Your internet connection, especially upload bandwidth and latency matter a lot.

I moved to a new house, and the quality of my video calls dropped dramatically. Constant freezing and dropouts. It was extremely frustrating to try to participate in a meeting. I could receive fine, but anytime I spoke out, I would drop out within minutes.

Speed tests showed plenty of bandwidth, but my modem statistics showed high upstream power levels, occasionally out of the allowed range, and lots of "uncorrectable" packets.

I finally got a Comcast technician in to look at it (yay for business-class support), and they replaced the cable from the pole all the way to the first splitter in the basement, and since then it's been flawless. 100/15 Megabit service has been totally adequate for our needs, so long as it's reliable and the latency is low enough.

It kills me that our city isn't putting in conduits or fiber while doing utility work, though. The whole time that was happening, there were gas contractors opening the street and running new supply lines to every house, but not putting in any extra conduits or dark fiber. The construction sounds were almost like being back in the office...

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#243

Post by Liskni_si »

A few people commented that the foreground/background detection cannot keep up with movements fast enough. Here's an idea that might help, although I'm not sure if it can realistically be done:

When the video is encoded, the codec does motion estimation (among other things) to reduce the bandwidth required. So why don't we use the motion vectors from the video codec to modify the foreground/background mask in real time? Obviously this is going to create weird artifacts pretty soon, but it might just be good enough for a few frames before the ML model produces another accurate mask.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#244

Post by ehsankia »

janekm wrote: post #127
ehsankia wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair a lot of sites do need it, especially for more power user level UX. See BetterTTV, RES, etc. Sites generally don't target power users, understandably.

The British PM just had to tell a major media journalist to unmute during the press conference introducing the new quasi-lockdown, so I think we can safely say that Mute button and status is no longer a power-user feature ;)

Doesn't Meet, like most other app, have a message when you try to speak muted? Though they should maybe make it more obvious. I do agree that mute button isn't power user.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#245

Post by kevincox »

boulos wrote: post #228
tsycho wrote: post #220

Having used both Zoom and Meet extensively now for the past 6 months, my experience is: 1/ Your internet connection, especially upload bandwidth and latency matter a lot. 2/ Zoom's desktop app performs very well, but its web version is atrocious. Not just because of the dark patterns they use to force you to install the desktop app, but also its performance is terrible compared to its desktop version, as well as wors…

Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud (but not Meet). For the last item, personal accounts (only?) default to send and receive video at lower resolution (360p). So if you meant that the quality is lower, you can set it on both sides to 720p. Edit: I don’t think Meet remembers those settings though, so you have to do it every time (and show your family members how to do so).

It doesn't remember them, it is frustrating.

As a legacy free GApps user it is even more confusing because the admin page gives me an option to default to higher quality video but that doesn't do anything.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#246

Post by three_seagrass »

neilpanchal wrote: post #32

Aside: Imagine you’re driving down the road and you need to make a right turn. Well, for some reason the steering wheel is stowed away and disappeared! You need to hover your hand around the center console in a specific area to be able to expose it. Out comes the steering wheel and now you can make a right turn. Google UX/UI team: Please fucking make the mute/unmute button visible at all times.

There are so many unnecessary clicks in the Google Meet U.I.

When I leave a meeting, can you please stop asking me for feedback every time and just take me back to the main meet screen?

It would be so easy just to put that small dialogue box on the main meet screen rather than prompt me to click the button to return.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#247

Post by supernova87a »

I have a different issue with Google Meet.

I have observed in the last couple months that whenever I create a Google Calendar invite with others, Google has started inserting a Google Meet conference as the location to meet.

It was one thing to ask/offer this as an option if you'd like to use it, but now Google is positioning it as if you had chosen that. So if you left it empty, because you usually use some other understood method with your friends/colleagues, now your participants are confused and think you wanted to use Google Meet.

I think that's going too far to get people to adopt your product.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#249

Post by fx32s »

supernova87a wrote: post #247

I have a different issue with Google Meet. I have observed in the last couple months that whenever I create a Google Calendar invite with others, Google has started inserting a Google Meet conference as the location to meet. It was one thing to ask/offer this as an option if you'd like to use it, but now Google is positioning it as if you had chosen that. So if you left it empty, because you usually use some other un…

I was able to change this default in the settings.

Re: Background Features in Google Meet, Powered by Web ML

#250

Post by spurgu »

Spooks wrote: post #237
0xffff2 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not just turn off your camera? The blurring tech doesn't seem nearly reliable enough for me to trust it if my "office" was that much of a catastrophe.

I think because seeing someone's face is more important than seeing their background

Yeah this should be obvious. I think video calls are a waste of time the majority of the time but one legitimate use case is where there's an issue which doesn't seem to be easily resolved using written media. In this case it's useful to have a video call where you can gauge someone's reaction to specific things you say. That way you might be able to get to the gist of where the miscommunication is happening. A dildo in the background doesn't add to this (although a bunch of empty vodka bottles might gives some clues), while seeing a person's reactions to statements/questions might.
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