Tag Archives: Google Meet Hardware

Huddly cameras bring continuous framing to Google Meet Series One room kits

What’s changing

As part of our initiative to bring adaptive framing to Google Meet meeting rooms, we’re proud to announce that you can now access Huddly’s continuous framing capability available as part of the Series One room kit hardware devices. Huddly’s new framing solution continuously adjusts to include participants coming and leaving the room. The feature can be turned on by meeting participants directly from the touch controller. Using Huddly framing helps keep those in the meeting room in view no matter where they are, so that they’re more visible to other participants in the meeting which creates a more engaging experience.

To support this change, we’ve: 
  • Updated the camera control tab on the touch controller to display all the framing options available in your meeting rooms and allow users to toggle between them. 
  • Moved the camera self-view from the manual control component on the touch controller to the TV/monitor display for optimal placement. With meeting spaces becoming more diverse, the display is the most common, accessible interface to all meeting participants. 
  • Changed “home” button in manual control to “Reset to Default”

Select “Camera control” and then “Framing by Huddly” to use this feature.


Getting started


  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature at this time. We plan to introduce an admin control in the future and will provide more information once it’s available.
  • End users: This feature will be OFF by default. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using device-based framing and using the Meet the touchscreen to control audio and video. Note that Huddly continuous framing must be turned on for each meeting and will not carry over to the subsequent meetings. 

Rollout pace



Availability


  • Available to all Google Workspace customers using Google Meet Series One room kits 

Learn more


Resources



More insights to help admins troubleshoot Google Meet hardware issues

What’s changing 

In 2022, we introduced several improvements for managing Google Meet hardware devices. These improvements included surfacing additional information about device issues, such as a description of the issue, when the issue was detected, and more. Today, we’re taking these improvements one step further by providing admins with even more data points. Specifically, admins will now be able to see the following types of usage data:


Issues: device health problems that are detected and persist over time. This is existing functionality and will continue to include the following issue types:
  • Device offline
  • Missing microphone
  • Missing speaker
  • Missing camera
  • Missing controller
  • Missing display
  • Missing default microphone
  • Missing default speaker
  • Missing default camera
  • Missing default whiteboard camera

Activities: records of how a hardware device is being used at any given time, including:
  • Meet call 
  • Zoom call 
  • Webex call
  • Bring-your-own-device mode [or computer connected]
  • Local present
  • Whiteboard camera present 
  • Peripheral firmware update 


Events: any notable point-in-time occurrence that can be useful for admins looking to troubleshoot issues, including:
  • Operating system update 
  • Feedback filed
  • Restart

Who’s impacted

Admins


Why it matters

The health and functionality of your Meet hardware fleet is critical for connection and collaboration. As such, it’s important that admins have the information and context they need to troubleshoot issues across their fleet. With these additional data points, admins will have even greater insight and context into issues, allowing them to troubleshoot and resolve them faster.


Additional details

Google Meet Hardware devices that do not run ChromeOS (such as Poly X30, X50, X70) will only support activity data for Meet calls at this time.


Getting started



Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources

Google Meet Series One Desk 27 and Acer Chromebase for Meetings devices will automatically adjust your lighting

Quick summary

Currently, Google Meet automatically adjusts your lighting for meetings on the web, helping to improve your video quality in underexposed environments. We’re now expanding this functionality to meetings taken on Google Meet Series One Desk 27 and Acer Chromebase for Meetings devices. If these devices detect that your video appears underexposed, it will adjust the brightness to improve how you appear in the meeting. We plan to expand this functionality to larger meeting room devices in the future. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. 
  • End users: The feature will trigger automatically when Meet detects that the users’ video is underexposed. Users can disable the feature in the settings menu for the active meeting. Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning on automatic video lighting adjustment. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available for all Google Workspace customers using Series One Desk 27 devices and Acer Chromebase for Meetings devices 

Resources 

Book a conference room directly from a Google Meet hardware device

What’s changing 

To maximize the use of physical room resources and make it easier to find meeting rooms, you can now book an available conference room directly from a Meet hardware device. If the device calendar shows a specific room is available, you’ll be able to book the room for either the next 30 or 60 minutes. If you need to, you can cancel an in-room booking from the device as well. 




This feature will launch with the default set to OFF — admins will have several options to configure this feature across their fleet: 
  • You can turn this feature on across all rooms by going to Directory > Buildings and resources > Global room settings and toggling Book rooms from Google Meet hardware. 
  • You can turn off this feature for specific rooms by going to Directory > Buildings and resources > Resource management > Resources > [Room Name] > Room settings and toggle Exempt from in-room booking. 
    • You can also bulk update the individual room toggle for up to 200 rooms from the resource management page.

Getting started

  • Admins: This feature will be OFF by default and can be enabled by the admin. Visit the Help Center to learn more about in-room bookings with Google Meet hardware. 
  • End users: If your admin has turned on this feature in your organization, you should see the ‘Book now’ option appear automatically in available conference rooms unless the room in question has been opted out.

Rollout pace


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers using Meet hardware devices

Resources


Updates for exporting Google Meet hardware fleet data and bulk device configurations

What’s changing 

We’re making three updates to the way admins manage their Google Meet hardware devices: 


Filtered fleet data export 
First, when you generate an export of your device data, that export will now use all active filters you selected on the Device list page prior to initiating the download. Previously, this action ignored filters and generated data from every device in your entire fleet. 


Bulk updates via CSV upload 
Second, you can now make bulk updates to your device settings by uploading a modified export of your device data in CSV format with your desired changes. Prior to this change, the only way to make bulk changes to device settings that are managed at the individual device level (as opposed to organizational unit level) was to select up to 50 devices at a time on the Device list page and trigger a bulk action. This change will allow customers with large fleets to save time by cutting down on repeated, manual steps when rolling out changes to hundreds or even thousands of devices.


Important note: We recommend carefully reviewing the Help Center article before using this feature, as there is no automatic way to revert changes. The only way to undo changes is to use the bulk update feature again with an earlier, clean fleet data export file, so be sure to keep one saved. 

Admins must have the requisite Google Meet hardware admin privileges to successfully bulk update devices (Manage devices for most changes, and Manage organizational unit settings when using it to move devices between organizational units). This feature cannot be used to assign calendars at this time.




Alert silencing
We’re also making it possible to temporarily silence device and peripheral alerts. This is helpful when rooms are temporarily taken down for maintenance. You can select a duration of time the alerts should be silenced for, and add a note regarding the silenced alerts so other Meet hardware admins can reference. You can also filter your devices by “silenced” and “unsilenced” from Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices.’’


In addition, we’ve added a new customer-level setting at Devices > Google Meet hardware > Settings > Service settings called New device alerts that now allows admins to specify whether newly enrolled devices automatically have their alerts silenced or not.


Getting started


Rollout pace

  • Filtered fleet data export: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 12, 2023
  • Bulk updates via CSV upload: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on October 12, 2023
  • Alert silencing: Gradual rollout (up to 15 days for feature visibility) starting on November 7, 2023

Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices

Resources


Additional improvements for monitoring Google Meet hardware issues in the Admin console

What’s changing

Recently, we announced the ability to detect and monitor several additional Google Meet hardware issues from the Admin console. Now that ChromeOS M108 has rolled out to Meet hardware devices, we’re sharing an update on the rollout of some of those features, including new options to fine tune your alerts: 

  • Missing display issues began rolling out in the Admin console on September 21 and may take up to 10 days to go into effect on all domains. 
  • You will be able to select which specific peripheral issue types you want to be alerted about from a new Admin console setting that also began rolling out on September 21 and may take up to 10 days to go into effect on all domains. If you don’t want to receive display alerts (or any other type of peripheral issues), you can opt out using the new setting. Note that the setting can be modified as soon as it appears in your Admin console, but it won’t actually go into effect until October 11. 
  • Unless you’ve turned them off using the aforementioned setting, you will begin seeing email alerts for missing display issues beginning October 11. Note that it may take up to 10 days for settings to go into effect on all domains.
Monitoring Google Meet hardware issues, like devices going offline or missing cameras, is crucial to ensuring a smooth meeting experience for your users. We hope this update continues to make it easier and faster for admins to be alerted of issues in their fleet and quickly remedy them. See our original announcement for more information. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • To view these new issues, you can monitor the status of your peripherals in the Google Meet hardware Admin console.
    • Missing display alerts will begin being sent by email or SMS on or soon after October 11.
    • The new Peripheral issue types setting will go into effect on or soon after October 11. If you want to disable any specific peripheral issue types, be sure to change it ahead of this date. 

Rollout 

Missing display issues in the Admin console and peripheral issue type setting: 
Configurability of peripheral email alerts by issue type: 


Availability

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware devices 

Resources 

Google Workspace Updates Weekly Recap – September 15, 2023

4 New updates 

Unless otherwise indicated, the features below are available to all Google Workspace customers, and are fully launched or in the process of rolling out. Rollouts should take no more than 15 business days to complete if launching to both Rapid and Scheduled Release at the same time. If not, each stage of rollout should take no more than 15 business days to complete.


Insert links in the Google Sheets app on iOS devices 
We’re adding the ability to insert a hyperlink into a cell in the Google Sheets iOS app by selecting a cell > clicking “+” in the top left corner > Insert > Link. If a cell contains a link, you’ll see options to edit or remove the link. | Available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about working with links & bookmarks. 
Insert links in the Google Sheets app on iOS devices


Enhanced spam protection through automatic labeling of suspected spam messages in Google Voice 
If you're using Google Voice, you're familiar with our suspected spam caller warnings. We're extending this feature to SMS messages on Android and iOS devices. You'll see these labels within the message, and you can either: 
  • Confirm a suspected spam message, which causes future messages from that number to go directly into the spam folder. 
  • Mark a labeled message as not spam, after which the suspected spam label is never displayed for that number again. 
Available to Voice Starter, Standard, and Premier customers, as well as users with personal accounts in the US. | Rolling out now to Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains at an extended pace (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility). 
Enhanced spam protection through automatic labeling of suspected spam messages in Google Voice



Birthday decorations for people cards 
In Google Contacts and across various Google Workspace products, you’ll begin to notice birthday decorations when hovering over another user’s people card. This small change can have a big impact on building deeper connections with your colleagues and stakeholders. Birthday decorations will be displayed on your birthday if you’ve added your birthday to your Google Account profile and you’ve set the information to be visible to others. | Available now for all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about your Google Account profile and what information others can see.
Birthday decorations for people cards
Add an organizational unit as an attribute in your external directory 
When using Directory Sync, you can now place users from the Azure Active Directory or Active Directory to a specific organizational unit on the Google Workspace side. To do so, you’ll need to add an organizational unit as an attribute in your external directory. This makes it easier to sync users who will be mapped to different organizational units on the Google Workspace side. | Directory Sync is available as an open beta to all Google Workspace customers. | Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up users to sync based on an organizational unit attribute.
Add an organizational unit as an attribute in your external directory


Previous announcements

The announcements below were published on the Workspace Updates blog earlier this week. Please refer to the original blog posts for complete details.


Dual Display on Poly Studio X Series Makes Video Meetings More Productive 
We are excited to announce dual display support for Google Meet on the Poly Studio X Series to help make video meetings more productive. With dual displays, you can see more meeting participants, presentations, and documents at once, which can help you stay focused and engaged in meetings. | Available to Google Workspace customers with Poly Studio X50, X52, and X70 devices only. | Learn more about Dual Display on Poly Studio X Series.

Completed rollouts

The features below completed their rollouts to Rapid Release domains, Scheduled Release domains, or both. Please refer to the original blog posts for additional details.


Rapid Release Domains:

Gallery view for Zoom interoperability on Google Meet hardware

What’s changing 

When we previously announced Zoom interoperability for Google Meet hardware devices, Zoom interop calls only supported Zoom’s Speaker view. We’re now introducing support for Zoom’s Gallery view, which makes much better use of screen real estate and allows more participants to be seen on screen at the same time. 


Note: There is no way to toggle between Speaker View and Gallery View at this time – Gallery view has replaced Speaker view as the default layout for Zoom calls. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin action required. 
  • End users: There is no action required — you’ll automatically notice this change. 

Rollout 


Availability 

  • Available for all Google Meet hardware customers 

Resources 

Monitor additional Google Meet hardware issues in the Admin console

What’s changing 

You can now use the Admin console to detect and monitor additional Meet hardware issues, including: 
  • Missing display 
  • Missing controller 
  • Missing default camera 
  • Missing default microphone 
  • Missing default speaker 
  • Missing default whiteboard camera

In addition to these new issues appearing in the peripheral status on the Device list page and on the issue timeline, email and SMS alerts will be supported for them as well. 

The updated issue timeline in the Meet hardware Admin console with new rows for Display and Controller





Also included in this update, admins can now clear previously set default peripherals from the peripheral tree on the device detail page. Previously this was only possible by setting a different peripheral as the new default. 


Why it’s important 

Before this update, the Google Meet hardware section of the Admin console provided insight into issues related to devices going offline or missing cameras, microphones, and speakers. With this update, admins can now also get information on other crucial peripheral types that admins need to know to monitor the health of their rooms. 


Getting started 

  • Admins: 
    • To view these new issues, you can monitor the status of your peripherals in the Google Meet hardware Admin console 
    • If you have turned on alerts for any organizational units using the Peripheral alerts setting, you will automatically start receiving alerts for these new issue types. 
    • Note that for most displays with CEC support, a missing display issue should only be opened when the display is actually disconnected from the device (and not just put into standby mode). However, actual behavior could vary from display to display depending on how manufacturers implement CEC. We suggest testing your displays to ensure they work as expected. Missing controller issues will be opened only when a device has no eligible controllers connected to it (including touch controllers or remote controls)

Rollout 

  • Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (up to 21 days for feature visibility) beginning on June 21, 2023 for all listed features except display issues,
    • Display issue support will be rolled out along with the promotion of Chrome M108 to the stable release track. This is expected in the next 6-8 weeks, but check What’s new in Google Meet hardware? for the latest and most accurate timeline. 
    • Note that during rollout to your organization, there may be a short period of time when issue data may appear inaccurate or delayed. This should resolve on its own when feature rollout is complete. 
    • Alert notification support may not be available for up to a week after you first see new issues appear in your organization’s Admin console – this is expected and due to the serialized nature of the feature rollout procedures. 

Availability

  • Available for all Google Meet hardware customers. 

Resources 

Experience better collaboration in conference rooms with new support for whiteboard cameras on Google Meet Hardware

What’s changing

Using a whiteboard during a brainstorming session is a great way to problem solve as a group. However in today’s hybrid work environment, it can be difficult for those attending a meeting in-person to collaborate with their remote colleagues on a whiteboard. 

To improve upon this experience, provide better meeting inclusion, and foster greater collaboration, we’re excited to announce support for whiteboard cameras on Google Meet Hardware, with Logitech Scribe as the first supported camera. This will enable the content written on a physical whiteboard in a room to be shared as a presentation in a meeting using the Logitech Scribe. As a result, remote meeting participants will be able to see what is being drawn on a meeting room whiteboard. 

An updated touch controller UI will allow users to easily share the in-room whiteboard upon selecting the “Present to the meeting” button, followed by the new “Whiteboard camera” option. 
new support for whiteboard cameras on Google Meet Hardware

Who’s impacted 

Admins and end users 


Why you’d use it 

This feature makes it easier to share what's on a whiteboard with everyone in the meeting, regardless of location, so they can collaborate more effectively. 


Additional details 

The Logitech Scribe is the first whiteboard camera to be certified for use with Google Meet hardware in the new category of content cameras. Additional partnerships will be explored to expand our content camera support. We will make announcements as those become available. 
The Logitech Scribe


Getting started 

  • Admins: There is no admin control for this feature. However, admins will have the option of setting a default whiteboard camera in the Admin console if they want to receive alerts when it goes offline. To set a default peripheral camera:
    • Go to Menu > Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices
    • Some features may require the manage Devices privilege for Google Meet hardware
    • In the Connected peripherals section, select the peripheral you want to set as the default > click “Set As Default”
  • End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. In order to use the whiteboard feature, a Logitech Scribe must be plugged into a Google Meet hardware device. 

Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • Available to all Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware kits with touch controller support and Google Meet hardware devices that have not yet reached their auto-update expiration date.

Resources