Google Duo on Android: How To Enable Low-Light Mode

In any video call, you want to be visible, otherwise, you’d use a standard voice call or text to communicate. Video has the advantage of letting you see other people’s reactions and letting your own be visible too.

There are a few parts to ensuring that your video feed is of good quality. First, you need a good camera; with a weak camera, you get a poor-quality image no matter what else you do. You also need a good internet connection; if you can’t transfer data fast enough it doesn’t matter how good the image quality looks to you as the recipient will never see it that way. Next, you need good framing; if you don’t position yourself and the camera well, you’ll end up with a bad angle that no one will appreciate. Finally, tying into the framing side of things, you need good lighting; without this people won’t be able to see you well.

Lighting is super important to good image quality. If you have a bright light behind you, you’ll end up silhouetted, if you have too bright a light in front of you, your face will look washed out. It’s important to try to use natural light where possible, and to ideal have it coming from in front of you. If you find that the light isn’t quite bright enough for your Google Duo calls, you can enable the “Low-light” feature, designed to let your video be visible even in slightly darker environments where the lighting isn’t optimal. If you want to enable the feature, you need to go into the app settings. You can do so by tapping the triple-dot icon in the top-right corner, then tapping “Settings.”

Next tap on “Call settings” to get to the right menu.

Finally, tap the slider for “Low-light mode” to the “On” position.

Hopefully, this guide covering how to enable Google Duo’s “Low-light” mode will help you achieve the best image quality you can get when you’re in a poorly lit environment.