Google Workspace Changes

Google Meet introduces waiting rooms for hosts to control participant entry and manage meetings more effectively.

Google Meet is introducing a new waiting room feature that provides hosts and co-hosts with greater control over meeting entry. This feature allows participants to join a waiting room before entering the main call, enabling hosts to admit or deny entry, send one-way announcements, and even move existing participants back to the waiting room. This is designed to prevent interruptions, allow hosts to prepare, and ensure smoother, more productive discussions, especially useful for scenarios like board meetings or interviews.

Ask Gemini in Google Meet is rolling out to Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus domains, providing AI assistance for meeting summaries, key takeaways, and catching up on discussions.

The 'Ask Gemini in Meet' feature is now rolling out to Google Workspace Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus domains. This update brings the power of Gemini directly into Google Meet, acting as a personal assistant to enhance meeting productivity. Users can leverage Ask Gemini to summarize ongoing discussions, get recaps of what was said, identify key takeaways, decisions, and action items, and even catch up on missed content if they joined late and Gemini-powered note-taking was enabled. Interactions with Ask Gemini are private to the user, and it generates answers by referring to meeting captions, user-permitted Google Workspace resources, and public web content. Caption data is not stored post-meeting, and it does not generate meeting recordings or transcripts. Currently, only English meetings are supported, with more languages to follow. Ask Gemini in Meet is on by default but can be managed by meeting hosts and admins.

Google Meet introduces 12 new AI-powered makeup looks.

Google Meet is expanding its video touch-up feature with 12 new AI-powered studio makeup looks. These options range from professional to expressive, and the AI ensures the makeup remains seamless and natural-looking during movements like sipping coffee or touching the face, allowing users to better express their personal style during video calls.

Google Meet live captions now support Cantonese.

Google Meet is adding support for Cantonese to its live caption feature, allowing users to view real-time text of what is being spoken in meetings. This enhancement improves accessibility and inclusion for Cantonese-speaking users by ensuring discussions, presentations, and training sessions are fully understood, regardless of hearing ability or connectivity.

Ability to set timers in Google Meet on the web.

Google Meet is introducing a new feature that allows users to set timers during web meetings. This tool, managed by hosts/co-hosts (or anyone if host controls are off), will be visible to all participants and can be paused or canceled. Timers aim to enhance meeting focus, time management, and equitable participation by providing a shared visual time reference, ultimately structuring meetings and boosting productivity.

Event organizers can now enable the Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature directly from Google Calendar when scheduling or preparing a meeting in Google Meet.

Google Workspace is introducing an enhancement to the Gemini-powered "Take notes for me" feature, allowing event organizers to activate it directly within Google Calendar. This integration simplifies the process of ensuring that meeting notes are automatically generated and shared in Google Meet, freeing participants to fully engage in discussions. The feature aims to provide comprehensive notes for critical meetings without requiring manual activation once the meeting starts.