Google Workspace Changes

Use companion mode to check-in to a Google Meet conference room, so everyone can know you by name

If you’re joining a meeting from a conference room, you can use companion mode on your personal device to check in to that specific room. Room check-in allows everyone on the call to easily identify who is in the conference room, rather than simply seeing the conference room name.

Admins can now clear previously set default peripherals in the Admin console.

Admins now have the ability to clear previously set default peripherals from the peripheral tree on the device detail page in the Google Meet hardware Admin console. Previously, removing a default peripheral was only possible by assigning a different peripheral as the new default.

Admins can now monitor additional Google Meet hardware issues in the Admin console.

Google has expanded the monitoring capabilities in the Admin console for Google Meet hardware. Admins can now detect and monitor issues such as missing displays, controllers, and default peripherals (camera, microphone, speaker, and whiteboard camera). These issues are visible in the peripheral status on the Device list page and the issue timeline, and they are supported by email and SMS alerts.

Several closed caption languages in Google Meet have moved out of beta.

Google Meet has removed the beta tag from closed captioning for Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian, as these languages have been validated.

Google Meet adds new target languages for translated captions from English.

Google Meet now supports translating meetings spoken in English into Dutch, Indonesian, Turkish, and Vietnamese. These newly supported languages are currently denoted with a beta tag.

Google Meet expands closed captioning support to include seven new languages.

To improve inclusivity, Google Meet has expanded its closed captioning support to include French Canadian (web only), Indonesian, Polish, Romanian, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Google Meet Hardware now supports whiteboard cameras, starting with the Logitech Scribe.

Google Meet Hardware has introduced support for whiteboard cameras, with the Logitech Scribe being the first certified device. This update allows in-person meeting participants to share content written on a physical whiteboard as a presentation, ensuring remote colleagues can see the brainstorming process in real-time. Users can access this feature through an updated touch controller UI by selecting 'Present to the meeting' and then choosing the 'Whiteboard camera' option.

Enhanced picture-in-picture experience for Google Meet in Chrome.

Google is updating the picture-in-picture (PiP) experience for Google Meet in Chrome to be more engaging and feature-rich. Users can now raise their hand, use the meeting chat, toggle captions, resize the PiP window more effectively, and access flexible layouts directly from the PiP window, offering greater flexibility when screen sharing or navigating between screens.

We’re updating the Google Meet picture-in-picture experience to be more engaging and feature-rich in Chrome.

Directly from the picture-in-picture window, you can now raise your hand, use in-meeting chat, turn captions on and off, more effectively resize the picture-in-picture view, and access flexible layouts.

Google Meet increases maximum meeting capacity to 1,000 attendees for select Enterprise and Education editions.

Google Workspace Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Essentials Plus, and Education Plus customers can now scale their meetings to a maximum of 1,000 attendees, with up to 500 of those attendees being viewers. This represents an increase from the previous limit of 500 contributors for Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Essentials Plus.

Google Meet introduces viewer mode to better control meeting flow for large events.

Google Meet now allows hosts to designate attendees as 'viewers' when creating Calendar invites. Viewers are unable to share their audio or video, which helps reduce distractions during large-scale meetings like webinars or town halls. Hosts can transition viewers to contributors via the people panel. While viewers can use Q&As and polls, support for in-meeting chat and emoji reactions is planned for a future update.

Simplified controls for meeting access in Google Meet are introduced replacing Quick access settings.

We’re introducing simplified controls for meeting access in Google Meet. These will replace the existing Quick access meeting settings and the admin setting to turn Quick access on or off by default will be removed. This update will begin rolling out on July 17, 2023.

Pin multiple participants from Google Meet Hardware devices

Users can now pin multiple video tiles using Google Meet hardware to highlight speakers, presentations, and other key attendees, ensuring a consistent pinning experience across desktop, mobile, and conference room devices.

Improving the Google Meet experience on foldable devices

Google Meet now features an improved experience for foldable devices in tabletop mode, where the grid layout and control bar automatically adjust to better suit the device for easier interaction during meetings.

Client-side encryption is now supported for in-meeting chat messages in Google Meet.

Google Meet is extending client-side encryption (CSE) to include in-meeting chat messages. This ensures that all chat messages are encrypted and inaccessible to any third party, including Google, providing users with direct control over their encryption keys and the identity service used for authentication.