Google Chrome on desktop is shipping an AV1 encoder to improve video conferencing

Google Chrome for desktop is receiving an important improvement that will significantly boost the video calling experience on super slow internet connections. In the latest Chrome 90 beta, Google is shipping the AV1 encoder, which brings improved video quality and significant screen sharing efficiency improvements to WebRTC-based video conferencing apps.

For starters, AV1 is a royalty-free, open-source video codec that’s largely seen as a replacement for the H.264/AVC codec used by most video streaming services. It claims to offer better compression efficiency and improved visual quality than its predecessor VP9 as well as H.264 and H.265 codecs. Content encoded in AV1 generally maintains higher quality at a smaller file size compared to content encoded in H.264. Meanwhile, WebRTC is a framework that enables real-time communication between browsers. It’s used for many web-based video conferencing platforms, including Google Meet, Facebook Messenger, Discord, and more.

To play content encoded in AV1, you also need an AV1 decoder installed. However, Google Chrome users have nothing to worry about as support for the AV1 decoder was already added in Chrome 70 two years ago. This means that WebRTC-based real-time conferencing clients like Google Meet and Google Duo can now encode video in AV1 and then transmit it to the other end. By taking advantage of the encoder, Google says Chrome can now enable video calling on a connection as slow as 30Kbps.

The AV1 encoder for WebRTC is rolling out in the Chrome 90 beta. It’s not available in the stable Chrome browser yet but should be arriving soon in a future release. If you’re on a slow internet connection and interested in checking out the improvements offered by the new encoder, you can download the latest version of Chrome beta from here.

Google has already implemented the AV1 codec in its Google Duo app on Android. It also plans to add AV1 support to a range of other Google products, including Stadia, Photos, Meet, and TV.

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