Auto-detect people not using headphones, and prevent them from speaking. Until they put some one.
Ideally showing them some customisable scolding message.
So far, any feedback / echo cancellation I've encountered just makes everybody's life miserable. Degradation to non-duplex voice (because all except the loudest speaker are attenuated down), "seaside noise" effect", etc.
This is the reason why a phone call over GSM or landline still often "feels" better than any HD video call with people on screens: Low-latency duplex audio.
Most* of this goes away if you just wear headphones.
Maybe this can be fixed by making the algorithm way more complicated, as the announced feature does. But I'd be surprised.
[*]: "Most":
2 people with headphones sitting near each other still cause echoes for each other and other participants. Fixing that is truly novel, and needed even for headphone users.
This is the part where I mention how Bose, despite making a $300 headset, didn't put a pin/wire on the wired connection for the mic.
(I usually use the laptop mic nonetheless, though, because for some reason if you want to record audio with bluetooth, the quality of the audio output becomes potato.)
The thing though is that it's entirely possible to have a setup with loud monitoring (e.g. performers on stage with floor wedges to hear the music and themselves) using speakers. It works well with directional dynamics and stage condensers close to your mouth, but fails horribly with the omni ECMs on your laptop/webcam several feet away.
I love my WFH setup with a dynamic right in front of my mouth and have the system properly rung out so I can monitor myself with no feedback. The cartoid pattern greatly reduces the sound coming from the off-axis speakers and the noise gate takes care of the rest. Obviously this isn't for everyone though and good luck having something this in the office unless you have a room with a door.
Auto-detect people not using headphones, and prevent them from speaking. Until they put some one.
Ideally showing them some customisable scolding message.
So far, any feedback / echo cancellation I've encountered just makes everybody's life miserable. Degradation to non-duplex voice (because all except the loudest speaker are attenuated down), "seaside noise" effect", etc.
This is the reason why a phone call over GSM or landline still often "feels" better than any HD video call with people on screens: Low-latency duplex audio.
Most* of this goes away if you just wear headphones.
Maybe this can be fixed by making the algorithm way more complicated, as the announced feature does. But I'd be surprised.
[*]: "Most": 2 people with headphones sitting near each other still cause echoes for each other and other participants. Fixing that is truly novel, and needed even for headphone users.