A glimpse of video conferencing's future with Google's Starline

Photo: Google

The Google product I was most keen to try out at this year's I/O conference was Project Starline, an advanced video conferencing system that Google first showed off at I/O 2021.

What's new: It's still a work-in-progress, but Google has slimmed down the custom hardware, which had taken up an entire room, to the size of a large TV. That's small enough that it was able to set up several Starline booths at I/O this year. Google is now testing prototype systems at WeWork, Salesforce and T-Mobile.

How it works: Starline uses a combination of technologies to create the appearance that someone you are chatting with is right next to you, life-sized and fully three-dimensional.

My take: Starline is more compelling than any of the hologram systems I have tried.

Yes, but: While Google has made strides to make Starline more compact and reduce its significant hardware requirements, the system is still so costly that the company won't even offer up an estimate on pricing. Its design also makes it suitable for one-on-one meetings but not group conferencing.

Go deeper: Google has posted a YouTube video of the new Starline hardware in action — but 2D video can't capture its impact.