Google Meet now alerts you when you cause an echo

Google Meet will tell you soon when it thinks you’re echoing in calls, Google said in a blog post on Monday. Right now, it’s hard to know if you’re creating an irritating echo for meeting attendees unless they interrupt the meeting to tell you. Google’s new proactive alerts should therefore help minimize the suffering for everyone.

Google says Meet is already controlling audio to suppress echo. But it can’t account for all of the remote desktop speaker and mic setups that cause audio to return in the call. The new echo warning appears as both a red dot on the Meet interface as well as a notification and text alert. Clicking on the notification provides steps to correct the echo, which include muting your mic, lowering your speaker volume, or switching to headphones.

Google says the new echo warnings are now being rolled out for Google Workspace and G Suite Basic and Business customers. Deployment will take up to 15 days. Warnings are enabled by default and do not require administrator intervention to be enabled.