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

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, Google is developing a system-wide Video Chat panel for Android that will let you apply effects to any video call.

While digging through the fourth beta of Android 16, I discovered strings for a new Quick Settings tile called “Video Chat.” The strings show that Android will support effects like background blur (which blurs your background environment), portrait relighting (which improves the lighting on your face), portrait touch-up (which retouches your face to remove imperfections), and studio-style mic (which suppresses background noise). For background blur, you’ll have the option to apply a light blur or a full blur to the background. The portrait relighting, portrait touch-up, and studio-style mic effects are simple on/off toggles.