Skip to main content

Zoom is down this morning, so here’s how to start a Google Meet call

During the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, video conferencing has become more popular and important than ever before. Zoom has become the go-to service for video calling with groups, but on the morning of August 24th the service was hit with a massive outage, going down for users across the globe. While we wait for things to be fixed, here’s how to start a Google Meet call.

Confirmed through Twitter and its own status dashboard, Zoom confirmed a partial outage of its service that appears to be affecting users around the world. Unlike an outage from May, Zoom users this time around are experiencing issues with login and starting/joining meetings.

Obviously, as many are trying to get schoolwork and business done over the service this Monday morning, it’s pretty frustrating.

If you’re one of the many users trying to get on Zoom while it’s down, you might want to give Google Meet a shot. The service just recently went free and has seen several updates in the past few weeks to better match Zoom’s feature set. For example, Google Meet now shows gallery views for everyone connected to a call.

For the longest time, Google Meet was a paid service only available to G Suite customers, but now it’s available to everyone with a Gmail account. You can run a 60-minute call for free with a group of people as long as they have a Google account. Here’s how it works.

First, the host of the meeting needs to go to meet.google.com. Next, click Start a meeting. From that screen, you’ll see “Join Now” as well as the link for others to join the call. Copy that link and send it to those who need to attend. The link will also pop up after you press Join Now. You can see this process step-for-step in the GIF below.

Site default logo image

Once the call is running, anyone with that link and a Gmail account is free to join and use the service just like Zoom. Attendees can easily join from Google Chrome or any other desktop browser, but those joining from Android, iPhone, or iPad will need to download the Google Meet app.

More on Google Meet:

Updated 8/24, originally published 5/17

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Google — experts who break news about Google and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Google on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

Author

Avatar for Ben Schoon Ben Schoon

Ben is a Senior Editor for 9to5Google.

Find him on Twitter @NexusBen. Send tips to schoon@9to5g.com or encrypted to benschoon@protonmail.com.