Con­fer­ences and meetings are in­creas­ingly shifting from in-person to online, and suc­cess­ful video con­fer­en­cing is crucial for every en­ter­prise. Online meeting platforms have become an absolute necessity in these times of working from home and global net­work­ing. At the same time, video con­fer­en­cing tools must be intuitive to use and easy to access. Google Meet is precisely that.

In 2013, Google in­tro­duced Google Hangouts, the video con­fer­en­cing and instant messaging service for chats, voice calls and ex­chan­ging messages with friends. The tech giant finally added a video con­fer­en­cing feature when it launched Google Meet in 2017. Meet started out as an app for up to 30 par­ti­cipants and now allows you to schedule, hold and record virtual meetings with up to 100 par­ti­cipants (150 with Google Workspace Es­sen­tials and 250 with Google Workspace En­ter­prise) without down­load­ing special software.

Meet can also be combined with other Google services, from Google Calendar to Gmail to Google Docs. Features vary depending on whether you use the free version, available since May, or the more complex version as part of a Google Workspace sub­scrip­tion.

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Re­quire­ments for using Google Meet

Whether you’re the meeting organizer or a par­ti­cipant, you can start a video con­fer­ence in a few simple steps by going to the Google Meet page or down­load­ing a free app. All you need is a Google account. The main lim­it­a­tion of the basic version compared to the Google Workspace sub­scrip­tion version is that meetings are limited to 60 minutes.

Further re­quire­ments for using Google Meet:

Supported operating systems

  • Apple macOS
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Chrome OS
  • Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux dis­tri­bu­tions
  • Android (5.0 or higher)
  • iOS (12.0 or higher)

Supported web browsers

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Apple Safari

Ad­di­tion­al hardware and network re­quire­ments

  • Broadband Internet con­nec­tion
  • In­teg­rated webcam or external USB camera
  • 2nd gen­er­a­tion Intel i3/i5/i7 processor or equi­val­ent AMD 2.2 GHz processor

Key features of the Google Meet app

If you want to give present­a­tions and par­ti­cip­ate in meetings, Google Meet is a great solution. We’ll present the most important features so that you can get started with Meet right away.

Joining a meeting

When you receive an invite, click ‘Join a meeting’ at the top right of the web page and enter the code or link from the invite, or join the meeting directly from the link in the invite. If you want to start a meeting yourself, click ‘Start a meeting’ and then log in with your e-mail address. Once your mi­cro­phone and camera have been enabled, you’re ready to begin.

Image: Home page of Google Meet
No plug-ins, no down­load­ing – you can join or start a meeting directly from the Google Meet home page.

Once the meeting starts, click ‘Join now’. If you want to add other par­ti­cipants, you have two options:

  • Choose Copy joining info, in which case you’ll receive a link that you can text or e-mail to the person
  • Choose Add people

With the second option, you can access your Google Account contacts to select par­ti­cipants. When you click ‘Send invite’, the person receives an e-mail invite to the meeting in progress.

Image: Google Meet: Adding participants
Access to Google Contacts makes it easier to invite people to a Meet video call.

You need a Google Workspace sub­scrip­tion if you want to schedule a future meeting directly in Google Meet. However, if you use the free version, you can do this from Google Calendar. Simply enter the date, name and time in the calendar and select ‘Add Google Meet video con­fer­en­cing’. Then invite par­ti­cipants by sending a link.

Image: Google Calendar: Meet appointment
You can create an invite to a video meeting when you enter an ap­point­ment in Google Calendar.

Present­a­tion and chat feature

As a meeting host, you can click ‘Present now’ to share your screen during a meeting. This feature allows you to share present­a­tions, videos and more with attendees without the need for prior setup. At the bottom left, you’ll see a link to the meeting, which you can copy and share. If at­tach­ments have been added in Google Calendar, you can access them here. As the meeting host, you can use the video and audio preview to see how you will look on the webcam during the meeting.

Image: Video call with Google Meet
Google Meet offers a simple, intuitive user interface.

You can also get a preview of the attendees who have already joined. Layouts and screen settings are ad­justable. Active content and attendees are auto­mat­ic­ally displayed, creating a dynamic meeting at­mo­sphere. A chat feature is also available, and you also have the option of turning on cap­tion­ing to display auto generated subtitles.

Note

The cap­tion­ing feature is currently only available for a limited number of languages (German, English, French and Spanish, among others).

In­teg­ra­tion of Google Meet with Google Workspace

What else does Google Workspace offer Google Meet users in addition to simple setup and the features described above? With all versions, there is no limit to the number of video meetings, but the maximum number of par­ti­cipants differs (100, 150 or 250). The biggest advantage is com­pat­ib­il­ity with all tools in Google Workspace: You can access your Contacts, auto­mat­ic­ally send invites from Gmail and save meeting re­cord­ings and files to Google Drive. Plus, you have direct access to all documents, videos and present­a­tions from your computer or smart­phone. The sub­scrip­tion versions come with ad­di­tion­al features that we’ll present below.

Tip

IONOS offers an all-in-one Google Workspace package so you can manage all your Google apps online with one cent­ral­ized platform and easily use Gmail with your domain.

Meeting lim­it­a­tions

The advanced features of Google Meet include a maximum video meeting length of 300 hours, UK and in­ter­na­tion­al dial-in numbers for joining by phone and the option of saving meeting re­cord­ings to Google Drive. For in­ter­na­tion­al companies or companies with a global customer base, this is an excellent way to enable video con­fer­en­cing for team members or customers who cannot attend and to provide constant access to in­form­a­tion. Companies with Google Workspace can provide live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers. This means the service can be used for global con­fer­ences and large-scale events.

Optimal sound quality is also ensured: When noise can­cel­la­tion is enabled, the app’s powerful AI auto­mat­ic­ally filters out back­ground noise – an absolute must for any pro­fes­sion­al meeting. Google Meet can use AI to adjust the video feed to poor lighting con­di­tions and optimize video quality. For video meetings organized through a personal Google account, only the creator of the meeting can mute or remove other par­ti­cipants. With the sub­scrip­tion versions, par­ti­cipants can mute other par­ti­cipants to reduce feedback or back­ground noise. All you have to do is select the par­ti­cipant’s name on the ‘People’ tab and click ‘Mute’.

Image: Google Meet: Muting participants
You can mute par­ti­cipants in Meet by clicking the mi­cro­phone icon in the person’s user profile.

Security

Security is crucial for all online activ­it­ies, and Google excels in this area. All Google Workspace security modules are enabled by default and Google has developed safe­guards to prevent unwanted guests. Par­ti­cipants need a per­son­al­ized invite to join a video meeting ap­point­ment, and the ID for each meeting isn’t activated until 15 minutes before the meeting starts. One thing that makes Google Meet so simple and easy to use: The platform is browser-based with no plug-ins or third-party tools, min­im­iz­ing potential security risks. Google Workspace also supports two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion, and all calls in Google Meet are protected by native en­cryp­tion.

Google Meet: Free version vs. Google Workspace version

Google Meet: Free version Google Meet: Google Workspace Es­sen­tials Google Meet: Google Workspace En­ter­prise
Maximum length 1 hour 300 hours 300 hours
Maximum number of par­ti­cipants 100 150 250
Number of video meetings Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Join from a browser
Invite external par­ti­cipants
Native mobile apps
Captions
Screen sharing
Ad­justable layouts
Dial-in numbers for joining by phone
Live streaming 100,000 viewers
Meeting re­cord­ings saved to Google Drive
In­tel­li­gent noise can­cel­la­tion
Customer support Online help and community forums 24/7 online support and community forums 24/7 online support and community forums

Google Meet is a video con­fer­en­cing platform that small busi­nesses and large cor­por­a­tions can use for all their online meeting needs. Google Meet’s in­teg­ra­tion with other Google apps is a definite advantage. New features are already being planned and con­tinu­ous tech­no­lo­gic­al im­prove­ments are expected.

Tip

Discover the features and ad­vant­ages of Google Chat and Google Hangouts.

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