Video conferencing software continues to work as the glue that holds organizations together in the remote work landscape, with countless platform providers vying for our attention. This includes advertising giant to the cloud Google, which offers its Google Meet video conferencing solution to anyone with a Google account.
However, Google Meet is not a competitor, with Microsoft Teams and Zoom also in this space. The specific zoom feature presents a significant challenge to Google Meet, which has experienced explosive growth since February 2020 and is almost synonymous with concept of video meeting and teleworking. Needless to say, this is the image that Google and other rival video conferencing platforms are desperate to shake, as evidenced by a steady stream of new features and improvements.
UNDERSTAND: How to Use Google Meet (Free PDF) (TechRepublic)
We looked at how Google Meet compares to apps like Zoom, Teams, Cisco WebEx, and BlueJeans. If you’re looking to learn more about what Meet has to offer and whether it’s a viable video conferencing solution for your business, this guide is here to tell you what you need to know.
What is Google Meet?
Google Meet is a business video conferencing service from Google that supports one-on-one video calls and group video meetings. Google Meet users can chat with other participants, share videos, presentations, and slides from their desktops in real time, and stream live events. Meet also offers breakout rooms, polls, Q&A, and whiteboards. Audio recording is also available on many paid plans.
Google Meet was formerly known as Google Hangouts Meets, before Google split the app into two different services: Meet for video conferencing and Google Chat for text-based messaging. Google Meet is Google’s answer to chat and video conferencing apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which are considered rival services.
Google Meet is available via a web browser at meet.google.com and can also be accessed from within Gmail, Google Workspace, and through a mobile app. Google Meet is compatible with Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, Linux, Android, and iOS/iPadOS devices.
Additional sources:
How do I use Google Meet?
As you’d expect from a Google product, it’s incredibly simple and user-friendly, especially if your organization already uses Google apps and services.
To use Google Meet, you need to sign in with your Google Account first. It can also be accessed from within Google’s Gmail browser app and through dedicated mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. You can also schedule a Google Meet meeting through the Google Calendar app.
To start a video meeting from Meet, type https://meet.google.com then click New Meeting, select the scheduled meeting, or enter the code. Once you’ve joined the meeting, you can invite others to join from the Add people section.
To start a meeting from Gmail, open Gmail in a web browser, select Meet, and then select New meeting, Join meeting, or a scheduled meeting. When you join a meeting, you add others by sharing the meeting code or by adding someone with an email address or phone call from the Add People section.
To schedule a video meeting from Google Calendar, create an event, add guests, and click Add Google Meet video conferencing.
Additional sources:
Is Google Meet free?
Google Meet is free to everyone with a Google Account. The free version of Google Meet offers group video meetings with up to 100 participants, with a meeting limit of 60 minutes. Paid Google Workspace plans add features, as listed:
- People who start a business ($6 per user per month) extended the maximum meeting length to 24 hours, supported US or international dial-up numbers, and added a whiteboard.
- Business standards ($12 per user per month) includes all features in Starter, supports meetings with up to 150 participants, additional noise cancellation, polling and Q&A, show of hands, break room (as shown in Figure A) and the ability to record meetings.
- Business Plus ($18 per user per month) includes all the features in Business Standard, supports meetings with up to 500 participants, and adds attendance tracking capabilities.
- Enterprise versions (prices vary) offer in-domain live streaming.
UNDERSTAND: All TechRepublic cheat sheets and smart people’s guide
Individual, Google One Premium customers ($9.99 per month) and Personal Google Workspace ($9.99 per month) both also include access to Google Meet conferencing features that extend the conferencing limit and some of the improvements above. Explore plan details for details.
Additional sources:
Do I need Google Workspace to use Google Meet?
No. Anyone with a Google Account – ie a Gmail address – can use Google Meet for free. However, only paying customers get premium features.
Google Workspace is Google’s replacement for Microsoft 365, offering a library of productivity and collaboration tools including Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Keep. Google Workspace is available in Personal, Basic, Enterprise, and Enterprise editions, with additional versions available for specific sectors such as government, healthcare, education, and non-profits.
All instances of Workspace have access to Google Meet. You can read more about the different versions in Google Workspace Cheat Sheet: The Complete Guide for 2022.
What other features does Google Meet have?
Google recently added a bunch of new features to Google Meet to help support teleworkers, and keep video conferencing apps fresh from the competition. It also benefits from some of Google’s AI technologies, which have been added to make meetings smoother and more accessible. Useful features include:
- Tiled layout allows Google Meet web users to see up to 16 participants on screen at once
- The ability to live stream Meet events to YouTube
- Option to show Chrome tabs instead of just one window or the entire screen, to provide high-quality video with audio
- Low light mode adjusts the user’s video so that it is easier for other participants to see the video in poor lighting conditions
- Noise cancellation to help filter out background noise
- Create live captions and real-time translation in meetings powered by Google’s speech recognition technology
What is the difference between Google Meet, Google Duo and Hangouts?
For a while, Google Meet and Google Duo were separate apps. Google Duo is a video calling app primarily advertised for use with friends and family, while Google Meet is a video conferencing app. By mid-2022, Google announced that Google Duo and Google Meet will eventually converge, with the end result being an app called Google Meet that will provide a powerful set of video conferencing and communication features. Present Google Duo app will eventually be renamed to Google Meet. Google Hangouts, which used to be a multifaceted voice, text, and video communication app, is no longer available.
What are the main competitors of Google Meet?
The main competitors for Google’s video conferencing app are Zoom and Microsoft Teams. They each provide some of the same core functionality, but differ in the features and experiences they offer, Who they target and pricing models.
Zoom supports meetings, chat, phone, and more. The Free version of the app can accommodate up to 100 participants, with a meeting limit of 40 minutes. The Pro version costs $14.99 a month and offers all the features of the app for free, automatic captions, 3 editable whiteboards with 25MB of cloud storage, as well as 5GB Cloud storage for recording. On top of that are the Business, Zoom Phone, Zoom Events, and Zoom Room plans, each of which offers a variety of extended calling, conferencing, and management capabilities.
Microsoft Teams is part of Microsoft’s 365 plan. Teams are a core component of Office 365, along with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. This means Teams users can share and collaborate on Office documents in real time and automatically save work in the cloud. A free version of Microsoft Teams is available so users can sign up using their email address. The free version of Teams offers video calls with up to 100 participants, with a meeting time limit of 60 minutes.
Microsoft Teams Essentials, for $4 per person per month, offers unlimited team meetings for up to 30 hours, with up to 300 participants per meeting, and 10 GB of cloud storage per user. Microsoft 365 Business Basic subscriptions start at $6 per user per month and offer team meeting recording with transcripts, as well as 1 TB of storage per user. On top of that are other packages and services including webinar hosting and business phone system integration.
How to get the most out of Google Meet?
You can make video conferencing better for everyone no matter what software you use by checking out our extensive library of video conferencing and teleworking resource guides:
Note: This article was originally written by Owen Hughes. It was updated in August 2022 by Andy Wolber.
