Tech Topic 73: AI Backgrounds in Meet Mobile, Drive Folder Access Changes, Google Labs Mixboard Experiment

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In this week's Tech Topic Peggy, Nina and Bob shared tips for meetings, sharing files, and the new Mixboard mood board.   

This week Nina and Peggy will be attending the Google Product Expert Summit in Dublin. This week's background is a generated Dublin cityscape.


Peggy Kolm: AI-Generated Custom Backgrounds in the Meet Mobile App

Peggy Kolm: Add an AI-Generated Background in the Meet mobile app

Google Meet just added the option to create a Gemini AI-generated background in the Meet app for Android and iOS. Previously this was only available on desktop. 

1. Open the Meet meeting and click the Effects icon on your video feed. 
2. Click "Generate a background"
3. Enter a prompt, and optionally a style.
4. Select one of the generated samples (or try again)

The background works in both portrait and landscape orientation. 
The generated background is only available in the Meet app on the device where it was generated.

Requirements: 
  • Google Workspace Business (Standard, Plus) or Enterprise (Standard, Plus), a Google AI subscription, or Google Workspace Labs access. 
  • For Android devices this requires a Pixel 3 (and up), Samsung Galaxy S9 (and up), or other similar device. 
More Information

Nina Trankova: Changes to Google Drive Access Controls

Nina shared information about a change coming to the way Google Drive handles folder permissions. 

All files within a folder will inherit the access permissions of that parent folder. That means to restrict access to a specific file (and not the other files in a folder), it must be moved to a different folder that has the desired restrictive permissions. This change will be fully implemented in early 2026.

She notes that this could be a significant issue for managing Google Meet meeting recordings. These recordings are automatically saved to a single "Meet Recordings" folder. That means that individual video files in that folder cannot have different permissions (for example for different business teams). 

This is Nina's suggested solution: 

1. Do not share the "Meet Recordings" Parent folder. 

2. Within Google Meet, utilize the "Control share settings" to ensure all meeting artifacts (recordings, notes, etc.) are initially shared only with the host or organizer.

3. After the meeting, the meeting host manually moves recordings and related files to dedicated folders with the appropriate permissions (for example a folder that the "Marketing Team" has access to, and a different folder that the "Legal Team" has access to.)

This ensures that only the relevant parties have access to individual meeting recordings. 

Note that this change also affects personal Google Accounts. 

More Information

Bob Danley: Google Labs Experiment: Mixboard for Idea Visualization

Bob introduced Mixboard, an AI-powered experiment from Google Labs, that's a "mood board on steroids". 

You can start with AI-generated images, or drag-and-drop your own images to work with. The Nano Banana image editing model lets you create images to explore, expand and refine your ideas.

You can then share or download your board or individual images.

You can try Mixboard at labs.google/mixboard . It's currently available in the U.S.

More Information

OnEBoard will be back with 3 Tips in 10 Minutes on October 19.

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