Google meet, one of the best videos communicating applications developed by Google. Online video communication has become an essential requirement nowadays.
Therefore, the importance of video conferencing applications has also increased mostly during the past year when the pandemic hit worldwide. Though there are messenger applications that allow audio and video calling with messaging options.
But they are good for social communication with friends and families. When we have any professional purpose such as conferencing, online events, webinars, meeting with employees, etc, we need to choose smarter options like video communication applications.
So, there are so many apps that have come out these days to make online communication seamless and interactive. Among them, google meet is the most popular and used one without doubt.
It includes a free and paid plan with other exciting video conferencing features in it. If you have decided to start integrating google meets your needs but is looking for a perfect guideline to go advanced.
Here is how you can get started with google meet. Let’s get into it,
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How to install google meet on your device?
Google meet is accessible on all devices. So, you can use it through the computer, android, and iOS devices to conduct large online conferences. For computer users, there is no trouble downloading and installing any software.
As google meet is included in google workspace, so it works on any browser like the other workspace applications. To use google meet on PC, you just need to navigate google meet through your browser or click.
For Android and iOS, there are particular applications for google meet that you have to install to use google meet.
However, if you are an organization that requires large virtual conferences among the employees, a computer and laptop is the best platform for you. Smartphones are best for personal and small meetings and to join online classes in distance.
How to sign up for google meet?
When you have to decide the platform to conduct a virtual conference, now you have to sign up for google meet. Google meet sign up is not so complicated.
When you go through the given link on your PC browser, you can see options like ‘New meeting’ or ‘enter a code or link’.
As you are just starting, you should click on the new meeting. then it will ask you to give you a google account and password to sign you up on google meet.
In mobile phones, the function is similar. You just need to install the application from the app store and sign up with your Google account. While signing up on google meet, you have to consider various google meet plans for different uses.
If you are just intent on personal use, then signing with a google account and getting started with its free plan is right for you.
But if you are a business, you should go with a google workspace account to have some advantages in your virtual attempt. Google meet is included in google workspace. Google workspace is a specific googles service to help students with a bunch of applications as educational assets.
If you don’t have a google workspace account, you should quickly have one to use google meet with extra advantages.
How to start or join a meeting?
Now let’s see how you can start a meeting with google meet on your purpose. Every time you enter into google meet; you can see two options: start/join the meeting. you can create a new meeting with the participants you want or can join any other meeting from here.
Create a meeting
If you want to create a personalized meeting or conference with the participants you like, you have to create a new meeting. so, you have to click on ‘New meeting’ and you get options to set what type of meeting you want to create.
As you can see, you can start an instant meeting, create a meeting for upcoming days, or schedule in google calendar. Choose the option according to your purpose.
Invite others to your online meeting
After creating a new meeting, your next step is inviting people that you want to join the online conference. In google meet, every new meeting you create has a unique code or link that you can send others to join your meeting.
The participants must have a google account to join your meeting. without an existing google account, they can’t join your meeting.
Join others meeting
Similarly, you can also join other meetings when anyone sends you an invitation to join in the meeting. Tap the meeting link from the invite, enter the meeting code from your host or call into the meeting using the dial-in number and PIN in the invite.
However, you can also start meeting directly from Gmail, go to the browser, and open your Gmail. From the menu on the left, click on start a meeting.
Check microphone and camera
After setting up a meeting and inviting participants, you can check your microphone and camera until the participants join in the meeting. Typically, whether you are a host or participant, you should check your device’s microphone and camera to know if they are working well.
Perhaps all the video calling apps include an option that allows checking the microphone and camera internally. Google meet also has tools for checking the camera and microphone before you join a call.
On the google meet dashboard, there is a button that says ‘Check your audio and video’. The button includes all the audio, microphone, and camera settings that you may need to adjust before video calling.
Then you can hit up a short video record of yourself to check how you are looking and hearing in the video.
Set your meeting layout
Google meet enables different layout options providing the best video calling layout experience to depend on your meeting type. Even if you are hosting a large-scale video conference, you can adjust all the participant’s profiles by adjusting the layout.
According to need, there are four types of layouts in google meet. They are
Auto
Tiled
Spotlight
Sidebar
The first one is set automatically by the system if you aren’t set in the manual. When you are starting a meeting. The tiled layout is known as gallery view in other applications that shows all the participants on screen at once.
Sidebar layout focus on the current speaker shows him on a big screen to all and the other participants will be screened in the smaller window.
To change the layout, you can see the three-dot option on your screen. Click on that and it will show you all the available types of layouts. Also, there is adjustment option through which you can set maximum tiles to display depending on window size.
Change or blur the background for fun
Changing the background is fun but it gives professional look on your video screen preview. You can add images from your device to use on your background or you can blur the existing background. You can blur the background lightly or heavily.
You can change the background whenever you join a meeting. to change the background, click on the three-stack dot and go for ‘Change the background’.
Also, google meet has ‘filters’ in the android and iOS versions. It has a variety of filters that users can use before and when in a meeting on google meet.
Turn on captioning
Excitingly, google meet has an automatic captioning function that supports a plethora of languages including English, French, German, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Spanish (European and Latin American). Google meets real-time captioning instantly and creates transcription of every single speech. It works better than you expect.
You can find the caption icon at the bottom of the video screen, enabling it will allow only the default language to appear as transcription. But if you click on it, you can switch to another supported language.
Create breakout room
Breakout room creates a place for participants whom the host wants to wait for. There are other purposes to create breakout rooms such as allowing meeting participants to have some private discussion while staying away from the entire group.
Breakout rooms are a feasible option for those who use this application for educational and business purposes. but it is only enabled in certain google workspace account plans and you can’t get it with free plans.
To create breakout rooms for your meeting, you have to start a video call first. Find the activities option in the top right and select breakout rooms.
You can see a breakout rooms panel from where you can create multiple breakout rooms according to your need, max 100. Then, you have to assign people whom you want to send breakout rooms. Reminder, all the participants will rejoin the meeting after the breakout session ends.
You can share the screen while in a meeting. Screen sharing is required in some situations especially in collaborating works when the host or participants want to show something from their screen to others.
Well with google meet, you can do this as it allows screen sharing through you can share your entire screen or you can go selecting a specific window.
To get this, you have to start or join a meeting, at the bottom, you will see an option ‘present now’. Then you have to select an option from ‘your entire screen/a new window/ a new tab’. Choose what you want to share on your screen and click ‘share’.
You can stop sharing the screen anytime you want. Just click ‘stop presenting’ on your meeting window and it will stop.
Let’s recap, now you can start using google meet as you have seen the complete guideline above. Using google meet is not complex. Its easy-to-use interface is super simple and comfortable that anyone can understand at first use. Further, we have also added some frequently asked questions regarding this so you can have your answers right here.
Frequently Ask Questions (FAQ):
As a moderator, you can mute one or the whole meeting participants at once. If you find someone’s microphone causing unwanted background sounds that harms the meeting or you want someone not to respond to the meeting, you can mute them with one click.
To mute any participant, you have to point to that person’s image, and then click Mute. However, you can’t unmute other participants. They have to unmute their microphone. you can mute or unmute yourself anytime.
Google meet doesn’t have a dedicated function to share documents and files. But you can still do this using the chat option. You can share doc files, presentations, sheets, and other links in the chat box and participants can go through the link to the destination to see your file.
Yes, google meet has a chat option that you can use for text messaging with other participants even when you are in a video meeting. the message you will send in this will be available to see for all the participants.
Google meet was formerly hangout meets which were Google’s only video communication services at that time. Hangout meets were released in May 2013 where google meet was released in 2017. Google meet replaces two of the google workspace applications which are hangout meet and google chat. All of them are available right now as google’s active services but google is now more intended for google meet than hangout.
Yes, of course. You can record your video meeting. but before that, you have to make sure that you are using google meet with workspace account. Because the recording option isn’t available in the free plan. So, you can’t record if you are using a free plan. Also, you can get it with the google meet essential package that costs only $8 per month/user.
Google meet and zoom, both are regarded as the most popular video conferencing applications right now. Being applications in the same genre, both google meet and zoom has all the required options that you may need in virtual conferencing.
But it is proven that zoom is better for large-scale online events and meetings where you have more than 300 participants. The meet is limited with only 250 participants in its business plus plan. Therefore, it is perfect for small businesses and educational purposes.
But zoom has been accused because of its poor security issues where google is a highly secured platform. It includes several security attempts to ensure safe and secure video communication with it.