Washington Post – “Zoom, Google, Microsoft and others say new features and tools will help improve the headaches of hybrid work meetings…As workers brace for a hybrid environment in the long run, makers of some of the most commonly used video conferencing tools are hoping their latest updates and those yet to come will address some of the biggest pain points of video calling and provide more collaborative capabilities. “It’s an evolving set of concerns,” said Sanaz Ahari, senior director of product for communication apps across Google Workspace and Android. “A lot of [our focus] has been around collaboration equity and making sure we have the right set of tools so people can collaborate regardless of where they are.” Office workers have a growing wish list of improvements for videoconferencing tools, from audio enhancements to better video features, that they’ve been using for nearly two years. And the makers of the tools — Microsoft, Zoom, Google, Webex, BlueJeans and LogMeIn — say they’re listening and responding. They’re working on minimizing background noise, allowing people to blur or change their backgrounds, get in and out of back-to-back meetings with one click, and better focus on individual faces and voices when workers are huddled in the same room together…”