Google Beam Brings More Natural Video Conversations Within Reach

CNET

26-05-2025

At Google I/O 2025, most of the hands-on demos were dedicated to Gemini AI and the exciting Android XR glasses. But tucked in a corner of the grounds around the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA, was a set of windowless rooms showing off one of the company's most promising innovations: Google Beam. In one of those rooms, I had a video chat where my conversation partner literally popped off the screen in 3D.
Google Beam is the new name for Project Starline, which the company has been working on for years. The renaming was announced during the Google I/O keynote to coincide with the news that HP would be producing Beam units for sale by the end of the year. While Google didn't share many details, these commercial and enterprise products will run roughly the same technology as what I got to experience, though they'll look more like conventional TVs than prototype devices.
I'd gotten a preview of then-Project Starline at the Code Conference in October 2023, and the hardware at the Google I/O 2025 demo was identical: a 65-inch display with six cameras surrounding it mounted in pairs on the top and both sides. (HP's commercial devices will have its six cameras embedded in the bezels.) The AI models now are running in Google Cloud, which the Beam team has refined to improve the quality of chats people have with it.
"Overall people report feeling a strong sense of connection when taking meetings on Google Beam," said Patrick Seybold, head of communications for Google Beam. The team has been testing its prototype devices internally across buildings and with external partners like Salesforce.
David Lumb/CNET
What it's like to chat with Google Beam
The improvements made were subtle, but noticeable compared to what I remember from two years ago. The Google employee I chatted with (who was in front of a similar Beam setup in a distant office building) popped out of the screen, with more detail on their face and hair. It felt far more like they were in the room with me than if I was on a standard Zoom-style video call. I found myself gesturing more, smiling wider and leaning forward in my chair.
That tracks with Google's years of research on people's behavior since first announcing Starline at Google I/O 2021. As the company has detailed in prior blog posts and SIGGRAPH white papers, folks chatting with Starline (now called Beam) feel it results in "more natural" conversations, though they have a hard time pinning down why. This suggests Beam preserves a lot of subconscious behaviors people don't realize they're making in real-life chats that don't get across in a Zoom call.
I certainly felt this in my Beam chat: The 3D nature let me pick up on when my conversation partner was shifting away or toward me and I picked up on more gestures and body language that conveyed tells that enable the typical ebb and flow of an IRL exchange. I didn't find myself talking over the other person, nor did they interrupt me.
Some of this is a result of tech decisions -- because, yes, I'm definitely more engaged in conversation with someone on a 65-inch display than a 2-inch Zoom window on my monitor. There's also the fact that every Beam conversation seems to be in an antiseptic room and a plain background, without a lot of books and tchotchkes littered around to distract me. Beam's six cameras also track my face and present my conversation partner at eye level, making it feel like I'm having a face-to-face chat with true eye contact.
"There are many ingredients involved to create the feeling of presence and connection that the Google Beam experience facilitates," said Seybold. "The 3D effect, the eye contact, the natural scale, and other key elements all play a role in facilitating that feeling of immersion."
In my chat at Google I/O, the Beam team member pulled a similar stunt as my conversation partner had when I tried out Starline in 2023: holding out an apple for me to reach for. It had a similar effect, like I was just too far away to catch it if it fell. But I also held up my hands for a double high five which, again, felt like I was inches away from performing. And I remember some of the things we talked about even now, which is more than I can say of some Zoom video chats I had earlier this week.
"We've run studies in these workplace environments that show people tend to be more attentive and remember more of their conversations when meeting on Google Beam," Seybold said. "We've even run studies and found that people over the course of multiple back-to-back meetings exhibit less meeting fatigue with Google Beam relative to typical video conferencing."
Google hasn't given any details on how much Beam products will cost, though we may find out when HP shares more information about its Beam offerings at Infocomm in a few weeks. Google has confirmed that it's lined up customers from Deloitte, Salesforce and Citadel, and referred to HP's products as bringing Beam devices "to the workplace," so it's likely that the first round of products will be aimed at enterprise -- which means, if I had to guess, it could be potentially priced out of the consumer market.
While not all of us will need a 65-inch display Beam device to have immersive video chats, it's something I'm looking forward to coming to my own offices and eventually to household devices. When I walked out of the room at Google I/O, I was smiling -- something I can't say I've done after a conventional video chat.