Tag Archives: Google Meet Hardware

Google Meet hardware devices from Poly now support interoperability with Cisco Webex and Zoom

What’s changing 

We’re expanding the existing interoperability between Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and Zoom to include Android-based Meet hardware devices from Poly. Specifically, these devices include: Poly Studio X30, X50, X52, and X70. 


Note that Webex and Zoom interoperability supports core video conferencing features. Some advanced features, such as polls, wired present, and dual-screen support may not be available when using Poly Meet hardware to join Webex or Zoom meetings.

Getting started


Admins: 
End users: 
  • When enabled by your admin, you can join a Webex or Zoom meeting from a Poly Android-based Google Meet hardware device by: 
    • Joining an ad-hoc call by tapping "Join or start a meeting" on your touch controller and selecting Webex or Zoom from the dropdown options. 
    • Joining a scheduled call by adding a room to an event with Webex or Zoom meeting details.  
      • Note: Calendar events that originate outside of Google Calendar must be duplicated and populated with room details manually.
  • Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Meet interoperability.

Rollout pace


Availability

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

Resources


Google Meet is now available on Logitech Android appliances

What’s changing 

Google Meet is now supported on Logitech’s Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini Android-based appliances for collaboration rooms and spaces of just about any size. After initial setup, admins can easily enroll, manage, and monitor these devices using the Google admin console. Google Meet on Logitech Android-based devices is supported on CollabOS v1.11 as a video conferencing provider. The following Logitech Android devices now support Google Meet: 
  • Logitech Rally Bar 
  • Logitech Rally Bar 
  • Mini Tap IP


Additional details

As part of this launch, we are also providing admins with a new capability to protect their room devices using a passcode. This ensures that only authorized users are able to access and change the room’s device settings. This feature is only available for Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini in appliance mode, where Rally Bar’s built-in computer supports Google Meet without the need for an additional computer or a user’s laptop. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Logitech devices as Meet Hardware and enrolling your devices.

Getting started

  • Admins: 
    • Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini appliances will need to be updated to CollabOS 1.11 in order to select Google Meet as the conferencing partner application. 
    • Once the device is updated to CollabOS 1.11 and the conferencing partner is set to Google Meet, follow the on-device prompts to enroll the device onto the Google Meet hardware admin console. Visit the Help Center to learn more about setting up Logitech devices as Meet Hardware.
    • Google Meet on Logitech Android appliances require Google Meet hardware licenses, please reach out to a Google Meet hardware reseller. 

  • End users: No action required. Once a Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini have been successfully enrolled, you can join Google Meet meetings normally.

Rollout pace

  • This update is available as part of Logitech’s CollabOS 1.11 release. For more information, please reach out to your Logitech account team or reseller.

Availability

  • Available on Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini customers. Support for additional Logitech devices will be added over time. 
  • Available to all Google Workspace customers.


Resources



Certain Google Meet hardware information will no longer be accessible on the admin console

What’s changing

We’re making some changes to how certain Google Meet hardware information can be accessed: 
  • The following fields will no longer be exported from the Meet Devices list page of the Admin console (Devices > Google Meet hardware > Devices): 
    • assignedCalendarGeneratedResourceName
    • assignedRoomResourceName 
    • assignedRoomBuilding 
    • assignedRoomFloor 
  • If you receive email alerts when a hardware issue is detected, those emails will no longer include the “Asset location” value. 
This information can still be found by going to the device detail page under the Calendar card or by querying the resources.calendars.list method in the Admin SDK API using the resource calendar email. 


Getting started 


Rollout pace 


Availability 

  • This update impacts all Google Workspace customers with Meet Hardware devices. 

Resources 

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: