Google Meet

Cloud Next is Google Cloud’s annual conference for enterprise customers and developers, and this year’s virtual edition is kicking off later today at 9 a.m. PT. Google Workspace announcements at Cloud Next ‘21 are primarily centered on security.

Back in October, Google introduced default and custom wallpapers for Meet. Google Meet is now rolling out video backgrounds that are first coming to the web. 

While text chatting with classic Hangouts is still possible today, Google has killed most of the legacy service’s video calling features. Google will soon restore a familiar capability that lets you make direct calls using Meet without having to generate a link ahead of time.

The occasional echo on video calls is unavoidable, and Google Meet already works to “intelligently” control audio to remove it. Google will now notify you when you’re causing the echo and provide tips on how to stop it.

Google is rolling out a handful of new features for Meet that focus on improving safety and security. Namely, the ability to have co-hosts in Meet calls is coming to more Google Workspace users.

Like Chat, Google Meet now has a Progressive Web App (PWA) that allows for quick dock, taskbar, or launcher access. 

Back in October, Google announced that Meet video calling would be available on Glass Enterprise Edition 2. Following a closed beta that required sign-up, Meet on Glass is now available for any Google Workspace customer/account.

In addition to video backgrounds on the web, Google is rolling out the ability to change your background in Meet for Android today. This feature is initially limited to pre-selected defaults and first came to desktops last October.

In light of COVID-19 driving all communication online, free Google Meet users with personal Gmail accounts could take advantage of group calls without a duration limit over the past year. That benefit ended at the start of this month and Google has detailed the new limitation.

For the past year or so, Google has primarily focused on catering towards the enterprise video calling market to beat Zoom. Google Meet is now making a push for personal users with a set of fun effects, like filters and masks.

In the transition to Meet, Google got rid of “Hangouts on Air,” or the ability to livestream video calls directly to YouTube for anybody to view. That feature is coming back, starting for education customers this year, but until then, Google is extending who can see internal Meet livestreams.

Following the web rollout, the Google Meet redesign is now coming to dedicated video calling hardware, like Chromebases. This is meant to ensure a consistent experience and workflow across all platforms.

Google’s fast iteration on Meet continues with a series of upcoming new features for education customers. One particular highlight for Google Meet “in the coming months” is the return of YouTube livestreams.

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. 

Google has been rapidly iterating on Meet in the past year, and that’s continuing today alongside updates to Gmail and Workspace. Google Meet is getting a “Companion Mode” to provide a second-screen experience as part of a push to make hybrid meetings more equitable.

In addition to rolling out a redesigned web UI, Meet is introducing what Google calls “gentle quality notifications” aimed at giving users recommendations on how they can improve performance and call quality.

In April, Google announced that Meet on the web was getting a redesign with streamlined bottom bar controls and other changes. It’s now rolling out for the first users and will be available for all in June.