Need a touch up? Android will soon let you apply effects to any video call

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority TL;DR Google is working on a new Video Chat panel for Android that lets you apply a variety of visual and audio effects to video calls. These effects include background blur, portrait lighting, portrait touch-up, and studio-style mic processing. Although we spotted evidence of the Video Chat panel in Android 16 Beta 4, the feature doesn’t work yet, suggesting it’ll roll out in a future release. If you want to look your best on a video call, you’ll need a great camera, adequate lighting, and a decent background. However, many people don’t have an ideal setup for video calls, or they’re simply not in a great location to take them. That’s why the best video chat apps provide various effects to help improve your video or audio quality. The exact effects available depend on the platform, though; some apps may lack certain effects or implement them in ways that can tax the device’s processor. To address this inconsistency and potential performance hit, ... Read full article.