Google to expand encoding options in Meet, will include Meet video in Docs

Google on Wednesday announced the latest round of updates to Workspace, its productivity and collaboration platform, including expanded encoding options for Google Meet videos. Additionally, Google is also allowing customers to integrate Meet video directly into Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. This integration will allow users to see their collaborators – along with the documents they are collaborating on – all in one tab.

Google began rapidly rolling out a number of new and improved features to its collaboration tools a few years ago when the Covid-19 pandemic made virtual work a must. Since then, Google has also ramped up efforts to integrate all of its tools.

With all the communication and collaboration products integrated into one set of apps, “of course we’re betting big on Google Docs and Google Sheets as storage for everything,” Dave Citron of Google said to reporters this week. “We can archive all the artifacts from a meeting using Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. All magically indexed by the Workspace search engine, so you will be able to search across all those objects seamlessly.”

Improved security is a key component of Google’s strategy – businesses won’t use collaboration or storage tools that leave their content vulnerable. Therefore, Google will offer optional end-to-end encryption for Google Meet meetings to all Google Workspace customers.

Additionally, in May, certain customers will have access to client-side encryption (CSE) in Meet. This feature, currently in beta, gives customers direct control over the encryption keys and identity provider used to access those keys. CSE in Meet will be available to customers on Business Plus, Enterprise Plus, and Education Plus Workspace plans.

Meanwhile, the ability to add Meet videos directly to Docs, Sheets, and Slides will be available in GA in the coming weeks. Users will be able to start a meeting and include it in a document, spreadsheet, or presentation. This will allow all meeting participants to collaborate while chatting.

Google Docs has “pioneered” in real-time collaboration, and this new capability will “transform that magical co-authoring experience into a real-time video call,” Citron said.

Some of the new Google Meet features announced Thursday mimic the features included on other video conferencing platforms like Zoom. For example, next month, attendees will be able to react in the meeting with emojis like the like or heart emoji. Meet next month will also offer picture-in-picture capabilities to users running the Chrome browser. They’ll be able to view up to four video tiles of meeting attendees in a floating window on top of other apps.

Google also announced improvements to Meet’s live streaming features. Now, Google Meet users can host meetings with up to 500 active attendees with the ability to stream to an audience of 100,000 on trusted Google Workspace domains. Later this year, live stream attendees will be able to participate in Q&A and polls. Additionally, later this year, Google will allow meeting organizers to stream the meeting live to YouTube from the Meet Activity tab.

There are also improvements coming to Companion mode, which was first rolled out to Google Meet in November. Companion mode allows users to host or join a meeting from within a conference room. with their laptop while taking advantage of the room’s audio and video. This makes it easy to share content, get a close-up view of a presentation, or use other features like remote attendees. To improve the in-room experience, Google has begun rolling out automatic noise cancellation across all Google Meet hardware, including Logitech, Acer, and Asus hardware. Later this year, everyone in the conference room will also be able to add their own personal video tile from Companion mode and their laptop camera.

Google is also adding improvements to Spaces; Workplace tool was introduced last year. Spaces enables real-time collaboration on projects and topics and across different modes, including email, Chat, and Meet. For example, a conversation might start with an email but move to a more collaborative space like Meet.

Spaces will offer inline threading in the coming weeks – a top request from enterprise customers. Google is also making Spaces easier to share and discover. Last week, the company allowed users to invite others to join Spaces via a shared link, and later this year it will allow users to search for and join Spaces within an organization. They are also improving search in Chats and Spaces to show relevant files and conversations. Google is also increasing the Spaces team size limit from 400 to 8,000. It will grow to 25,000 by the end of the year.