Higher Quality Gmail Video Chat Now Available in Labs

Gmail's video chat tool just got a lot better with the introduction of a number of technologies which significantly improve the video quality. These technologies are available in Labs for now.

Gmail is a great email tool, but it can do so much more than email. Google has been cramming features into Gmail for years now, no surprise since it's one of the company's most popular products.

While the focus lately has been on the phone call features, the video chat capabilities are getting some attention as well.

"If you use video chat in Gmail, you might be interested in a new Labs feature we just rolled out that allows you to preview new video chat features before they're turned on for everyone," Serge Lachapelle, Product Manager at Google, wrote.

"Visit the Gmail Labs tab under Settings, turn on 'Video chat enhancements,' and right away, you'll see higher resolution video and a bigger video chat window," he added.

"The higher resolution video uses a new playback mechanism which enables widescreen VGA and frees up valuable resources on your computer," he explained.

The Video Chat Enhancements Labs extension was created to test improvements to the video technology before launching them in Gmail.

For the user, the advantage is that you get to access the improvements before anyone else, with the caveat that the features may not be completely baked yet.

For now, the feature enables a bigger video chat window and higher resolution video. Both users in the chat have to enable the Labs feature, for the enhancements to be active. Of course, you can always disable it if it causes problems.

The best part about the new Labs feature is that new technologies will always be previewed there so you're guaranteed to get access first as soon as they become available.