With Google Chrome 90 Beta, Users Get Boosted Video Calling Experience

Google Chrome is working on an improved version for desktop users to boost the video calling experience on slow internet connections.

According to the source, Google Chrome 90 beta will have an AV1 encoder to improve video quality and screen sharing efficiency improvements to WebRTC-based video conferencing apps.

AV1 is a royalty-free, open-source video codec that is a replacement for most video streaming services for the H.264/AVC codec. It offers better compression efficiency and improved visual quality than VP9, H.264, and H.265 codecs. Content with AV1 usually has higher quality at a smaller file size than content encoded in H.264.

In contrast, WebRTC is a framework enabling real-time communication between browsers and used for web-based video conferencing platforms, including Google Meet, Facebook Messenger, Discord, and more.

To play such content, users are required to have an AV1 decoder installed. There’s nothing to worry about for Google Chrome users as Chrome 70 already supports the AV1 decoder.

With this encoder, Chrome can enable video calling on a connection as slow as 30Kbps.

It is informed that the AV1 encoder for WebRTC is coming with the Chrome 90 beta. But it would be available for all soon in a future release.

If you’re using a slow internet connection and would like to check out the new offers, you can download the latest version of Chrome beta.