Google Meet adding more moderation controls to limit chatting, screen sharing

Last week, Google announced that its messaging services will soon be fully integrated into Gmail. As part of “Productivity & Collaboration” week at Cloud Next ’20: OnAir, Google Meet, Chat, and Drive are also getting a slate of security enhancements to better moderate access.

In Google Meet, the big focus is on keeping “video collaboration secure.” Hosts will have increased control over who can join a meeting. External guests that do not have an account on your domain have to explicitly knock before being able to join. 

• Once an attendee is ejected, they won’t be able to attempt to join the same meeting again by knocking, unless the host re-invites them. 
• If a knocking request from a user has been denied multiple times, the user will be automatically blocked from sending more requests to join the meeting.

Similarly, hosts can require that users joining over phone, Calendar invite, etc. obtain explicit approval to enter. Another “advanced safety lock” sees users not signed in to a Google Account blocked from participating.

Once inside a Google Meet, hosts will soon have the ability to moderate whether attendees can use the built-in chat or present. If both settings are enabled, only the host can screen share and send a message. This level of control is particularly ideal for Google Meet’s education customers, and why it’s first rolling out to G Suite for Education accounts, as well as consumers, in the “coming weeks.”

Meanwhile, Google Chat will leverage Safe Browsing to flag phishing links in real-time. This system is already in place for URLs in Gmail messages and will throw up a bright red warning page for users to turn back from the malicious site. Rooms, after seeing a big upgrade in Gmail, can soon be reported and blocked if malicious activity is present.

Lastly, G Suite administrators now have the ability to prevent users from downloading, printing, or copying Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides marked with sensitive content. These information rights management (IRM) controls are currently in Beta for G Suite Enterprise, Enterprise Essentials, and Enterprise for Education.