Google Beam brings more natural video conversations within reach
in Google I/O 2025,Most of the practical demonstrations were dedicated Gemini Eye And exciting Android XR Glasses. But hidden in the corner of the grounds around the coastline amphitheater in Mountain View, California, was a set of windowless rooms flaunting one of the company’s most promising innovations. Google Beam. In one of those rooms, I had a video chat. There, my conversation partner literally jumped out of the screen in 3D.
Google Beam is the new name for Project Starline, and the company has been working on it for many years. That’s how the name was changed Published on Google I/O Keynote This coincides with news that HP will produce beam units for sale by the end of the year. Although Google didn’t share many details, these commercial and enterprise products look more like traditional TVs than prototype devices, they run roughly the same technology as I’ve experienced.
I got a preview of the Starlines from the project from that time At the code meeting in October 2023And the hardware for the Google I/O 2025 demo was the same. The 65-inch display features six enclosed cameras mounted in pairs on top and on either side. (HP’s commercial devices have six cameras embedded in the bezel.) The AI model is currently running on Google Cloud. This has improved the quality of chats that people have refined by the beam team.
“We’re excited to be able to help you get started,” said Patrick Seybold, Google Beam’s Director of Communications. The team is testing prototype devices internally throughout the building with external partners such as Salesforce.
What is it like to chat with Google Beam?
The improvements added were subtle, but they were noticeable compared to what I remember two years ago. I chatted with a Google employee I chatted with (who was in front of a similar beam setup in a faraway office building). It felt like they were in the room with me more than they would have had a standard Zoom-style video call. I noticed myself gestured more, smiling and leaning forward into the chair.
It tracks years of research into the behavior of people at Google since it first launched Starline at Google I/O 2021. Blog post and Siggraph white paperpeople chatting with Starline (now called Beam) feel that it leads to a “more natural” conversation, but it’s a struggle for why. This suggests that Beam saves many subconscious behaviors that you don’t realize you’re doing in real chats that don’t arrive on Zoom calls.
I certainly felt this in my beam chat: nature in 3D picked up when my conversation partner moved towards me or towards me, and I picked up more gestures and body language that allowed for the typical decline and flow of IRL exchanges. I didn’t realize I was talking to other people and they didn’t get in the way.
This is the result of a technical decision. Yes, because I’m having a conversation with someone on a 65-inch display than the 2-inch zoom window on my monitor. It is also the fact that every beam conversation appears to be in a septic room and obvious background, with no many books or chotchkes scattered around to deflect me. The six cameras on Beam also track my face, presenting my conversation partner at the eye level, and feeling like I’m having face-to-face chat with true eye contact.
“Many ingredients are involved in creating a sense of presence and connection that the Google Beam experience promotes,” says Seybold. “3D effects, eye contact, natural scale and other important elements all play a role in promoting that immersion.”
In my chat on Google I/O, members of the Beam team drew similar stunts to their conversation partners when they tried Starline in 2023. It had a similar effect, as I did just If it falls it’s too far to catch it. But I also raised my hand for the double high five. And I still remember some of the things we talked about today.
“We’re doing research in these work environments, showing that people tend to be more careful and remember their conversations more when they meet on Google Beam,” says Seybold. “We’re doing research and found that people over the course of multiple consecutive meetings have less fatigue with Google Beam compared to typical video conferencing.”
Google may check when HP will share more information about beam offerings on InfoComm within a few weeks, but it has not provided any details on the amount of Beam products. Google has confirmed its Deloitte, Salesforce and Citadel customers lined up, and calls HP’s products to bring beam devices “to the workplace” so it’s possible that the first round of products will be targeted at businesses.
Not all of us need a 65-inch display beam device to do immersive video chat, but that’s something we look forward to coming to our office and ultimately our home devices. I was laughing when I left the Google I/O room – I can’t say I did it after traditional video chat.
See this: I tried Google Beam with Google I/O