The recent trending topics include various video conferencing mediums such as Zoom and Google Meet Video Conferencing. With the world, currently under breakdown due to the intractable epidemic of the COVID-19, the working community has now shifted to the work from home mode of endeavour. Since the universities can’t conduct lectures, they have also started utilising the medium of Eclass or online class to conduct regular lessons for their students through various applications to keep them updated with the syllabus. Due to this active demand for better and efficient video conferencing software, many technological firms are coming up with different strategies to the world of video conferencing. The recently popular applications for video conferencing include Zoom app, Microsoft team, House party etc. Google has also launched its own video conferencing mobile and desktop application called Meet by Google Hangout. This is Google’s second app launched especially for businesses purposes after Google suite.
What is Google Meet?
Google Meet video conferencing is the latest HD video conferencing app launched by Google in the wake of the recent surge in the number of users for the video calling services due to the world being under lock down. This app provides a streamlined way of meeting people across the globe. By visiting the link meet.google.com, you can start any meeting or join the event already in progress. You can create an event for the future by updating the details such as date and time of the meeting in the Google calendar and linking it to the Meet by Google hangout app. You can send an invitation to the meeting to various people who can later join the conference by clicking on the link. Google Hangout Meet participant limit ranges from 150 to 250 participants at a time. Google has also included the option of accessing the Google Meet app through Gmail, thus, allowing Gmail users to easily join the video conferencing tool. Google Meet desktop app has also enabled the linking of Google classroom with this application so that the teachers can create E-class schedule without the students being given any administration powers to mingle within the tool. Google meet participant limit is up to 250 people who can view the conference and the company is working to accommodate screen sharing with up to 16 people at a time. The service has been launched at a time when the people are in search for better video conferencing software to conduct their work from home sessions more efficiently when the popular applications like Zoom are being reported of handling the users’ data insecurely.
How to Use Google Meet?
In order to start using Google meet through Google meet desktop app or Google Meet video conferencing mobile app, you need to pursue the following steps.
Visit the website or open the application
To start using Meet by Google hangout, open the link meet.google.com in your browser.
You need to have a subscribed membership of Google Suite in order to host the meeting but anyone with a Google Gmail account can join the meeting on Google Meet.
Host or attend Meet
Once you open the link, you will be presented with two options of hosting or joining the meeting. The same window also holds a reminder section linked to your Google calendar that allows you to browse through any scheduled meetings that are currently undergoing or coming up in the future.
To host anything the user has to create a code and share it through the invites to the other people and to attend a meet you have to enter the code sent by the host.
Present
Once you enter the conference, you are allotted with the option to be the presenter. Any person in the meeting can be a presenter irrespective of them being a host or the first one to enter the conference.
Audio and video controls
The user can mute or switch on the audio and switch on or off their own video by simply clicking the mic and camera icon present at the bottom of the desktop panel.
Add people
Google meet enables the option of letting people join the conference by simply copying and sharing the link to the Google meet desktop app with Google meet participant limit of up to 250.
Using a desktop presentation
Click on the option available at the bottom right corner of the panel to allow the screening of an entire desktop or a single windows application on the Hangout Meet participant limit of up to 250.
Muting the members
You can mute the audio or pause the video of any attendee by clicking on their name in the list of attending members. This will mute the attendee’s voice or video for you and not the entire conference.
Chat
There is an inbuilt messaging app in the Meet by Google Hangout which enables you to chat with the other attendees or share an attachment containing necessary files for presentation.
How is Google Meet different from Google Hangout?
Google updated its older version of the video conferencing app called Google Hangout into Google Meet. It has also split the classic Hangout app into hangout chat and hangout meet.
While the Google Hangout allowed up to 25 attendees of the conference to share the video screen, the number which is allowed by Google meet video conferencing app or desktop site is much more ranging from 150 to 250 people at a time for G suite license holders. One major feature of the difference in Google meet from Google Hangout is that the Google meet video conferencing app allows the external participants to join the meeting by using the shared link. Safari and internet explorer are not the platforms which are supported by the Google meet, unlike the Hangout. One new feature of the Google meet is that you can tune into a meeting by dialling a phone number and it supports the call from many countries. Google meet enables the users to record the full-length meeting which is a newly added feature along with the improved quality of the video from low resolution to high resolution. Considering all these improvements Google meet video conferencing stands out by a vast majority against the older Google Hangout.