Tag Archives: Hangouts Meet

Extending Hangouts Meet premium features to all G Suite customers through July 1, 2020

Quick launch summary

As more employees, educators, and students work remotely in response to the spread of COVID-19, we want to do our part to help them stay connected and productive with G Suite.

All G Suite customers can use Hangouts Meet today for easy-to-join video calls, but we’ll soon enable free access to more advanced features, including:

  • Larger meetings for up to 250 participants per call
  • Live streaming for up to 100K viewers within domain
  • Record meetings to Google Drive

These features are typically only available in the Enterprise and Enterprise for Education editions of G Suite, but they’ll be available to all G Suite editions at no additional cost until July 1, 2020.

Getting started


  • Admins: If you haven’t yet done so, enable Meet video calling for your organization. You can then turn on live streaming and recording.
    • G Suite Basic, Business, and Nonprofit customers: These advanced features will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain, OU, or group level.
    • G Suite for Education customers: These advanced features will be OFF by default and can be enabled at the domain, OU, or group level. Please see our FAQ in the Help Center for additional education-specific considerations when enabling Meet and these features.
    • G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education customers: These features are already available in your domain and will continue to respect your current settings.
  • End users: Once enabled in the Admin console, end users can live stream and record meetings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about how to live stream and record a meeting.


Rollout pace




Availability


  • Available to all G Suite customers


Resources


Get a better overview of meetings with visual timelines in the Meet Quality Tool

Quick launch summary

You can now see a timeline of when users joined a call and events that took place during the call in the Meet Quality Tool. The timeline helps with you visually understand how the call developed over time.



The information on the timeline can be adjusted by selecting/deselecting participants and sorting them by name or join time. You can find more information about the timeline tool in the Help Center.

Getting started:

Admins: This feature will be available by default when using the Meet Quality Tool.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace



Availability


  • Available to all G Suite customers

Resources




Use Hangouts Meet with Safari

Quick launch summary

You can now use Hangouts Meet, including screen sharing functionality, with Safari version 13 or higher. This will create a simpler meeting experience for Mac users who prefer to use Safari as their default browser.

Getting started


Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using Meet with all major browsers.

Rollout pace

  • This feature is available now for all users.

Availability

  • Available to all G Suite customers

Resources



Use a phone for audio in a Hangouts Meet video call

What’s changing

You can now use different sources for your audio and video feeds in a Hangouts Meet video call. Specifically, you can use a phone call for audio while still using your computer's camera and web browser for video.

This can be done by dialing into the call directly, or by having Meet call your phone. You can use your phone for audio immediately upon joining, or anytime after joining if you’d like to switch.

Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

You can use your phone for audio on Hangouts Meet calls to ensure you have consistent and reliable audio quality, even if your network connection is poor, or if your computer’s microphone and speaker aren’t working. You’ll still be able to share and see video and presentations in the meeting.

Additional details

Please note that the Meet dial-out option is currently only available in the US and Canada.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be ON by default if dial-in functionality is enabled. If you’d like to disable the dial-in functionality for Meet meetings, it can be done at the domain, OU, or group level. To disable this feature, in the Admin console go to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings and disable the setting “Provide a phone number and PIN for each video meeting.”

Visit the Help Center to learn more about turning dial in/out on or off for your organization.

End users: This feature will be ON by default for all calls with dial-in/out enabled. Visit the Help Center to learn more about using a phone for audio in a video meeting.

Rollout pace



Availability


  • Available to all G Suite customers

Resources


View data for only selected call participants in the Meet Quality Tool

Quick launch summary

You can now select specific participants when viewing meetings in the Meet Quality Tool. This allows you to display data and statistics for just a subset of the participants. When viewing calls with many participants, this helps limit the amount of information displayed on the screen at one time. By fitting just the most relevant information into the view, pagination can often be avoided even for very large meetings.

Getting started

Admins: This feature will be available by default when using the Meet Quality Tool. To select participants, use the participant list on the left-hand side of the Meeting Details page. As selections are made, the information displayed to the right will update accordingly.

End users: This feature has no impact on end users.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all G Suite customers

Resources


Present to meetings using the HDMI cable on Hangouts Meet hardware

Quick launch summary

You can now present high-quality video content with audio in your meeting using the HDMI cable included with Hangouts Meet hardware kits.

Please note: Hangouts Meet already supported using this HDMI cable for local presentations. This additional functionality allows users to present into meetings with remote participants as well.

Getting started

Admins: There is no admin control for this feature.
End users: This feature will be ON by default.

Rollout pace

Availability

  • Available to all G Suite customers

Resources

Roadmap



Manage Hangouts Meet and classic Hangouts video calls with one setting

What’s changing

Video calling from Hangouts Meet and classic Hangouts is now controlled by the same setting. This means that the setting in the Admin console that controls classic Hangouts video calling now also controls Hangouts Meet.

Who’s impacted

Admins

Why it matters

By combining these settings, we’re making it easier for you to manage all video calling within your organization.

Getting started

Admins: You can find the new, consolidated setting in the Admin console at Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts > Meet settings. Learn more in the Help Center. The new setting will respect your previous setting. For new G Suite customers, video calling will be enabled by default.

End users: There is no end user setting for this feature.

Rollout pace



Availability


  • Available to all G Suite customers

Resources




Use Hangouts Meet with Internet Explorer 11

Quick launch summary

We’ve added limited Hangouts Meet support in Microsoft Internet Explorer 11. You’ll need to download and install the latest version of the Google Video Support Plugin for Meet to run on Internet Explorer.

Please check out the Help Center to learn more about supported browsers and some of the limitations of using Hangouts Meet with Internet Explorer.

Availability

Rollout details


G Suite editions

  • Available to all G Suite editions

On/off by default?

  • This feature will be OFF by default. Please download the plugin to use Meet with Internet Explorer.

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Use the Google Assistant on Asus Hangouts Meet Hardware Kit with new beta

This announcement was made at Google Cloud Next ‘19 UK. Check out Next OnAir to tune into the livestream or watch session recordings following the event.

What’s changing

We’re launching a beta program to let you use the Google Assistant on the Asus Hangouts Meet Hardware Kit. This hardware can now respond to voice commands to join a meeting, exit a meeting, call a phone number, and turn on spoken feedback.


Who’s impacted

Admins and end users

Why you’d use it

Using the Google Assistant to control the Asus Hangouts Meet Hardware Kit can help:

  • Create a more seamless meeting experience with simple and quick voice commands
  • Increase accessibility by making it easier to activate spoken feedback

How to get started

  • Admins: Apply to be part of the beta program using this form.
  • End users: No action required.

Additional details

This beta currently only supports the Asus Hangouts Meet hardware kit. Configuration for use must include all of the following:
  • Chromebox CN62 or CN65 connected with a Hangouts Meet Hardware speaker mic and MIMO touchscreen
  • Chrome version set to 72 or later
  • Available in English only

Availability

G Suite editions
  • All G Suite editions are invited to apply to the beta program.
On/off by default?
  • These features will be OFF by default. Admins can apply to the beta program using this form.

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Live captions in Hangouts Meet now available on iOS

Quick launch summary

Support for live captions on Hangouts Meet was announced for the web and Android earlier this year. We’re now bringing that same captions support to the Meet iOS app.

Please note, when you turn on captions, they will only be visible on that particular device. In order for other participants in the meeting to see captions, they’ll have to turn it on for their devices as well.

Currently, live captions are only available in English. Additionally, captions will not appear in a recording of a meeting. Check out the Help Center to learn more about how to use captions in a video meeting.

Availability

Rollout details
G Suite editions
  • Available to all G Suite editions
On/off by default?
  • This feature will be available by default.
Stay up to date with G Suite launches