Image credit :Google
Google Meet is one of the most used video conferencing tools available right now. During the lockdowns and in the new normal, it is one of the key enablers that allows people to work remotely or attend their classes online.
Apart from Zoom and Microsoft Team, Google Meet has proven to be godsend as it simplifies the way we communicate with our colleagues and business associates. While a lot of users are still using Google Hangouts, Google Meets is set to replace it soon.
We have done a detailed article on how to master Zoom meetings, now let us discuss how to use Google Meet effectively.
Cost: While Google Meet is the go-to video conferencing solution for G Suite users, the company recently made it available to consumers as well, for free. Anybody who has an active Gmail account can use Google Meet to create or attend online meetings. For consumers, there is a cap of 100 attendees in one call. Though currently Google is not limiting the length of the call, however, after September, you’ll only get 60 minutes per call in case you’re not a G Suite user.
Initiate a call: Google Meet calls can be initiated right from your Gmail inbox from the computer. Ideally, you can find Google Meet icons on the menu bar on the left-hand side of your mailbox. This may be slightly different based on the layout setting that you have.
To initiate a call you can simply click on the camera icon and you will get a pop-up screen that shows options like Join Now, Present on the right side. In the centre, you can see your camera feed and buttons to turn off audio and video are also present there itself. Three dots on the bottom right of the camera feed offers you the settings menu and an option to turn on captions.
To start a meeting, you need to click on Join Now. Once clicked, you get the meeting information like the URL. Dial-in numbers are also available for people who are not able to attend the call online and want to join by dialing a local number. The meeting URL can be shared with the attendees and anyone who has the URL can join in.
In case you want to schedule a meeting in advance, you can do so by going to Google Calendar where you can easily create an event on the desired date and add the attendees.
You can alternatively use, https://meet.google.com/ as well to host, schedule or join a meeting. Though Google Meet works best on popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge. You can use other Chromium based browsers like Brave, however, you may face issues.
Join a call: Any attendee who has a meeting URL can join a meeting. An option to join a meeting can be found in your Gmail Inbox, right beneath the “Start a meeting” icon. You can attend a meeting by directly pasting the meeting URL in a browser on the PC or you can even use the Google Meet application installed on the phone.
Presenter: Google Meet allows users to share your screen with the attendees. Meet by default allows all the attendees to present their screens, be mindful of that.
Unlike a few other video conferencing clients, Google Meet offers an option to choose between sharing the entire screen, sharing the entire browser or even choose a specific tab to share. This feature comes in handy when you want to limit the audience from being able to see all the content on the system, though it works best when you’re using Google Chrome.
Mute attendees: This comes in handy when one of the attendees is facing audio issues or has a lot of background noise that distracts you from the meeting. You can always pause such video feeds and mute their audio using the power tool. While others may still be able to hear or see them, you can focus on the meeting.
Chat: Google Meet comes with an inbuilt chat option that allows the attendees post questions, share links or files among the group. The option to chat is available on both mobile and the web platform.
