Google Meet has, for some reason, unveiled three new face filters for its video conferencing software, and they’re all, without exception, pretty off-putting.
Per a announcement (opens in new tab) on the Google Workspace Updates blog, Google Meet users can now, should they want to, choose to have a log or a strawberry for a head, or be cast as a rabbit in an office cubicle.
If you insist on bringing your boundless cheer into a hybrid meeting, you can find these effects with the rest of them under the effects panel in Google Meet (opens in new tab), accessible before and after a meeting.
Oh lord no
Admin controls are, thankfully, here to save the day, with the ability to control whether the effects are accessible across an organization. They are off automatically for Google Workspace Education users, but on default for users on all other Google Workspace plan users, who get what they deserve.
The new effects are part of an extended fifteen day rollout that began on 21 December, so although you may think you’re safe, you’re not. Not really.
These bizarre and upsetting effects are at the extreme end of what Google Meet offers. There are also virtual backgrounds, allowing users to pretend to be working at the beach or in the midst of a blizzard, and even just basic blurs, allowing users to hide the clutter in their busy workrooms.
We’re not saying that the new filters are bad (they really are), it would just be best to be able to get through the Q4 revenue report meeting in a recession year without our bosses breaking the tension with some mandatory fun.
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