Right now, Google is in the process of merging Google Duo and Google Meet into one singular service. We know that Duo is more for personal one-on-one calls, Meet is more for meetings. However, it seems that Google wants to streamline the services.

Google Meet could get stereo separation in the future

Now, you’ll need to take this with a grain of salt. This was discovered via an APK deep-dive performed by 9To5Google. In it, there were some strings discovered in both Google Duo v169 and the latest version of Gmail. Stereo separation Lets you hear where people who speak are on your screen These point to “Binaural audio” or stereo separation. Even though the code is in the software, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to come to the app. Companies often put the code for new features in the current version of their software. However, the features could be taken out at any point.

What is this feature?

When you’re in a video call, it can get confusing when you’re talking with a lot of people. That can make it harder to know who’s talking at what moment. Because of this, Google could be adding a stereo separation feature to Meet. With this feature, you’ll hear the speaker’s audio panned based on their windows position. Basically, if a person’s window is on the left side of the screen, their audio will be panned toward the left, and vice versa. This will make it a lot easier to identify who’s speaking during a call. If there are a lot of people in the chat when you hear someone’s voice come out of the right speaker, you’ll know to look toward the right of the screen to see who’s talking. There’s no telling when (or even if) stereo separation will come to Google Meet. Since this feature was discovered in the code, we don’t know if Google will plan on keeping it. Also, we don’t know if the company isn’t already testing the feature internally.