Google Meet makes Hand Raise more prominent, adds automatic lowering and more

Abner Li | Jun 17 2021 - 1:47 pm PT

The Hand Raise feature in Google Meet is getting a slew of updates over the coming weeks. Everything from the end user to host experience is seeing an upgrade.

The goal is to make the action “easier to notice and address,” starting with an “updated and improved visual icon and animation on the video tile.” A dot animates in the bottom-left corner with an actual waving hand that then expands to a pill to show the person’s full name.

Meanwhile, the tiles of people with raised hands can be moved to be more visible in the grid view, while there will be an “audio notification for all participants when the first raised hand is raised.” Another alert that shows the number of raised hands will also link to an ordered list of hand raises.

Lastly, you’ll benefit from your hand automatically being lowered after speaking. All these features will be enabled by default.

Rapid Release domains: Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 16, 2021.
Scheduled Release domains: Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on June 30, 2021.

However, updated Hand Raise availability depends on who organized the Google Meet call: Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Business customers.

It won’t be available for meetings organized by Workspace Business Starter users or G Suite Basic. It’s also not there for users with personal Google Accounts.

Another update sees Google Meet support TLS over port 443 in addition to the fixed IP address range.