Google recently revealed how it created Google Meet’s Adaptive Audio feature, which tries to reduce echo and other audio issues when multiple call participants are in the same physical room.

Google Meet and its Adaptive Audio feature was developed in response to the rise of remote and hybrid work during the COVID-19 pandemic. The increase in the number of virtual business meetings meant that high-quality sound was needed, especially in situations where several participants were in the same physical space. Supply chain issues at the time made dedicated boardroom hardware difficult, so Google did a lot of testing to try to make its Adaptive Audio work similarly.

Google wanted a way to sync audio from multiple devices into a common space without high performance being there. So the company made Apative Audio work with Google Meet. The feature uses ultrasonic technology to detect the presence of other nearby devices and turn these devices into a cohesive audio system. The ultrasound technology operates at a high frequency that is inaudible to humans, so it will not interfere with the sound being transmitted or received during meetings. This meant that users did not have to manually configure audio situations and prevented interference from other cameras or sources.

The company said in a blog post: “Once Meet detects multiple laptops present, adaptive audio automatically turns on, synchronizing all laptop microphones and speakers without turning off any speakers.”

Adaptive Audio is one of those high-tech features that not many users are aware of because it works in the background. Adaptive Audio automatically syncs microphones and speakers on connected devices. It switches between microphones depending on who is speaking, which reduces feedback and echo. Google Meet also uses backend processing and cloud-based noise reduction techniques to ensure that audio remains effective. These features eliminate background noise and improve the overall clarity of the audio sent to other meeting participants.

Adaptive audio in Google Meet is only available to Google Workspace customers with a Gemini for Workspace add-on.

Source: Google