Google has announced a new update for the picture-in-picture (PiP) mode in its video calling app Google Meet. Now, you can do much more than mute yourself, leave the meeting, or turn off the camera directly from the PiP window.
The updated PiP window lets do extra stuff like raise your hand, use meeting chat, turn captions on/off, and access flexible layouts. Also, you can resize the picture-in-picture view more effectively. These new features will be available to all Google Workspace users and personal Google accounts via the Chrome browser. Google said it might take up to 15 days for the updated PiP experience to reach all users.
Google Meet's PiP mode was launched almost a year ago in the month of June. As the name says, it allows you to continue video meetings in a floating window while you can work across other browser tabs. For instance, if you want to check an important email during a video meeting or look up something being discussed among your peers. The PiP floating window lets you see up to four video tiles of meeting attendees and you can drag it anywhere on the screen to make sure it's not hiding some important information.
To use the feature, click on the three-dot menu at the bottom of the Google Meet tab and select Open picture-in-picture mode from the list. Google said that its "new picture-in-picture experience provides greater flexibility when screen sharing or navigating to a relevant screen for a more dynamic experience."
In recent months, Google has added a bunch of new features to Google Meet such as the ability to turn off individual video feeds, interoperability with Zoom, and access control for files shared during calls. Earlier this year, the noise cancellation feature on Google Meet for Android was expanded to more devices.
