Google Meet

Google Meet is a video-communication service developed by Google.[1] It is one of two apps that constitute the replacement for Google Hangouts, the other being Google Chat. Google planned to begin retiring Google Hangouts in October 2019.[2]

Google Meet
Developer(s)Google
Initial release2017
Stable release
41.5.312123951
PlatformAndroid, iOS, Web
TypeCommunication software
LicenseFreemium
Websitemeet.google.com

History

After being invite-only and quietly releasing an iOS app[3] in February 2017, Google formally launched Meet in March 2017.[4] The service was unveiled as a video conferencing app for up to 30 participants, described as an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts. At launch, it featured a web app, an Android app, and an iOS app. Features for G Suite users include:

  • Up to 100 members per call for G Suite Basic users, up to 150 for G Suite Business users, and up to 250 for G Suite Enterprise users[5][6]
  • Ability to join meetings from the web or through the Android or iOS app
  • Ability to call into meetings with a dial-in number[5]
  • Password-protected dial-in numbers for G Suite Enterprise edition users
  • Integration with Google Calendar for one-click meeting calls
  • Screen-sharing to present documents, spreadsheets, or presentations[5]
  • Encrypted calls between all users[5]
  • Real-time closed captioning based on speech recognition
  • Free users have some further limitations:
    • Meetings (after September 2020) are limited to 60 minutes.[7]
    • All participants must have a Google account.[7]

While Google Meet introduced the above features to upgrade the original Hangouts application, some standard Hangouts features were deprecated, including viewing attendees and chat simultaneously. The number of video feeds allowed at one time was also reduced to 8 (while up to 4 feeds can be shown in a "tiles" layout), prioritizing those attendees who most recently used their microphone. Additionally features such as the chat box were changed to overlay the video feeds, rather than resizing the latter to fit.

Free access

In response to the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020, Google began offering Meet's advanced features that previously required an enterprise account to anyone using G Suite or G Suite for Education.[8] The use of Meet grew by a factor of 30 between January and April of 2020, with 100 million users a day accessing Meet, compared to 200 million daily uses for Zoom as of the last week of April 2020.[9][10][11]

Until May 2020, a G Suite account was required to initiate and host a Meet video conference, but with increased demand for video conferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Google rolled out free access to Meet also for holders of consumer accounts.[10] Following the announcement, Google's Director of Product Management recommended that consumers use Meet over Hangouts.[12][9]

Free Meet calls can only have a single host and up to 100 participants, compared to the 250-caller limit for G Suite users[12][13] and the 25-participant limit for Hangouts.[14] Unlike business calls with Meet, consumer calls are not recorded and stored and the company states that consumer data from Meet will not be used for advertisement targeting.[15] While call data is reportedly not being used for advertising purposes, based on an analysis of Meet's privacy policy, Google reserves the right to collect data on call duration, who is participating, and participants' IP addresses.[16]

Users need a Google account to initiate calls[17] and like G Suite users, anyone with a Google account is able to start a Meet call from within Gmail.[18][19] Free meet calls have no time limit, but will be limited to 60 minutes starting in September 2020. For security reasons, hosts can deny entry and remove users during a call.[13] As of April 2020, Google plans to roll out a noise cancelling audio filter and a low-light mode.[20][21]

Google Meet uses proprietary protocols for video, audio and data transcoding. However, Google has partnered with the company Pexip to provide interoperability between Google Meet and SIP/H.323-based conferencing equipment and software.[22]

See also

References
  1. Johnston, Scott (March 9, 2017). "Meet the new Hangouts". Google. Archived from the original on March 14, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2017.
  2. de Looper, Christian. "Google will begin shutting down the classic Hangouts app in October". DigitalTrends.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2019. Retrieved September 5, 2019.
  3. Perez, Sarah (February 28, 2017). "Google quietly launches Meet, an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts". TechCrunch. AOL. Archived from the original on March 2, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2017.
  4. Johnston, Scott (March 6, 2017). "Meet the new Hangouts". Google. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  5. "Compare G Suite products - Meet". gsuite.google.com. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  6. "Compare Meet with classic Hangouts - G Suite Admin Help". support.google.com. Google. Archived from the original on March 11, 2020. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
  7. "Google Meet premium video conferencing—free for everyone". Google. 2020-04-29. Retrieved 2020-04-29.
  8. "Free video conferencing tools". Google Cloud Blog.
  9. Boland, Hannah. "Google launches free version of Meet in bid to topple Zoom". The Telegraph. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  10. Lardinois, Frederic. "Google is making Meet free for everyone". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  11. Lerman, Rachel. "Big Tech is coming for Zoom: Google makes video chatting service Meet free". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  12. Dave, Paresh. "Google makes Meet video conferencing free to all users, challenging Zoom". Reuters. Reuters. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  13. Boland, Hannah (April 29, 2020). "Google launches free version of Meet in bid to topple Zoom" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  14. Schroeder, Stan. "Google Meet takes on Zoom by going completely free for everyone". Mashable. Mashable, Inc. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  15. "Google makes Meet video conferencing free to all users, challenging Zoom". April 30, 2020 – via www.reuters.com.
  16. Gartenberg, Chaim. "Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and WebEx are collecting more customer data than they appear to be". The Verge. VoxMedia. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  17. "Google is making Meet free for everyone".
  18. Peters, Jay. "Google will add Zoom-like gallery view to Meet and will let Meet users take calls from Gmail". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  19. Finnegan, Matthew. "Google's Meet video app gets Gmail integration". Computer World. IDG. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  20. Schroeder, Stan. "Google Meet takes on Zoom by going completely free for everyone". Mashable.
  21. Lardinois, Frederic. "Google Meet launches improved Zoom-like tiled layout, low-light mode and more". TechCrunch. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
  22. "Google Hangouts to Anything Video Conferencing Blog". VideoCentric. June 18, 2018. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
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