What’s New 🚨
Attendee List
We've heard from you that in larger meetings it can be difficult to quickly see who's in the room or interact with users when their video circle isn't being displayed.
With the new Attendee List, you can now see all meeting participants at a glance, along with their name, avatar, local time zone, and options for interaction (like Pin for me). The avatar of a user that is actively speaking is highlighted, just like their video circle.
To view Attendees, click the Attendee Count icon (e.g. 7/30) to toggle the list open.
You'll be able to view Attendees in every mode except Floating Mode.
Global Shortcuts for Microphone and Camera
Need to quickly mute your microphone or toggle your camera off while working in another application? We've added Global Shortcuts for your mic and camera! 🎉
From the General tab of the Preferences panel ( ⌘ , ) scroll down to the Global Shortcut section to set your preferred shortcut for toggling your microphone and camera on or off.
Share System Audio (Beta)
Around's audio processing is optimized for voices, which is great for conversation, but can create unwanted distortion when other types of audio are shared.
With our Share System Audio feature, you can bypass our signal processing and send high quality audio from another device or application to everyone else in your meeting. Now you can DJ your next hangout or show up to your next standup with your electric guitar (we don't recommend this).
Click Vibes & Games → Share System Audio to get started. (This is a beta feature and will require installation of an audio plugin.)
Curve Fever
The next game in our roster is Curve Fever, where players try to survive the longest by avoiding the curves left behind by the other player's ships. It's the perfect game to give your mind a rest before jumping back into that big project. Enter the arena, meet your opponents and let the battle begin.
Note: More titles are coming in the future. Got a suggestion for a game you'd like to see? Let us know at community@around.co.
Quality and Performance Updates 🌟
As Around matures from beta to 1.0, we are extremely focused on product quality, including battery usage, performance, CPU and memory usage, network stability and support for all popular devices and browsers. Please help us continue to improve Around by letting us know if you’re experiencing any issues with quality and performance. You can email us at support@around.co.
Improvements
- We've added two new Icebreakers: 🎊 Confetti and 🎆 Fireworks
- Games can now be found in the Vibes & Games menu (previously called Music & Vibes). We've updated the toggle name to reflect this change.
- The user that starts a Vibe can now change Vibes without stopping the current one. Click the dropdown toggle next to the active Vibes & Games icon and click the title of the active Vibe to select a new one.
- In larger meetings, meeting participants that don't have a visible video circle will still have their GIF and emoji reactions appear to everyone in the new Reactions Feed. We're also working on ways to improve the experience for larger meetings in the future.
- A new campfire has roared to life in Campfire mode. Grab a friend – and maybe a few s'mores – and give it a try. 🔥
- For some Vibes the campfire has been replaced by a disco ball
- macOS Monterey users on a Mac with Apple silicon can add background blur to their video by using Portrait mode. To enable, open the Control Center in the menu bar, click Video Effects, then select Portrait below Around.
Fixes
Many bugs related to performance, battery life, and memory usage have been stomped in this latest release.
Let us know what you think 📣
As always, your feedback is instrumental in helping us build a product that you'll continue to love far into the future. Please reach out if there is anything we can do to make your Around experience even better. And for inquiring minds, never fear, recording is still on the roadmap and on its way!
That's all for now! Ping us at support@around.co if you run into any issues or just want to say hej. 👋