Google introduced a new Meet quality tool to the Google Workspace, allowing administrators to view bandwidth information compared to the quality of a call. Ergo, you can no longer blame a bad internet connection to sneakily get out of a video call.
Now available to all Google Workspace customers, the video quality tool lets administrators view bandwidth availability and usage. This lets them know where a bandwidth bottleneck could be causing low quality during video calls. The information is depicted in graphs, where users can check the exact timestamps of when bandwidth took a hit.
As spotted by Ars Technica, Google Meet has a number of quality tools for administrators (such as employers) to track user data in video meetings. This includes network statistics such as jitter, packet loss, and congestion; the type of connection used; audio levels; along with CPU usage.
With the added bandwidth tool, which can be accessed via the Meet quality tool option in the Google Meet app, admins can now view sent and received bandwidth, used bandwidth, and bandwidth availability over time. As the post states, this was previously only available as an average across calls, but it can now be narrowed down to participants.
Google states this allows for organizations to “easily troubleshoot or improve call quality for their users.” But it also means there’s even more user information being logged. It’s a heads up for anyone needing to duck out of a call (not that I do, just in case…).
If you’re looking for ways to get rid of any form of tracking on the web, check out how to turn off email tracking, along with the best VPN services to stay safe online.
