Google Workspace Changes

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.

If you’re using client-side encryption for Meet, in-meeting chat will now be supported.

If you’re using client-side encryption for Meet, in-meeting chat will now be supported. As with the audio and video content of your client-side encrypted meetings, all in-meeting chat messages will be encrypted and inaccessible by any third party, including Google.

Admin privileges for Google Meet hardware devices have been expanded.

Google has expanded the administrative privileges available for managing Google Meet hardware devices, providing admins with more control over their hardware fleet.

Google Meet now automatically adjusts the volume of meeting participants to ensure everyone is equally loud.

Meet will adjust the audio of all participants, helping to ensure everyone is equally loud. Noise cancellation must be turned on to take advantage of this feature.

Google Hangouts on web will redirect to Google Chat on web starting November 1, 2022, and Hangouts will no longer be accessible.

Beginning November 1, 2022, Google Hangouts on web will redirect to Google Chat on web, and Hangouts will no longer be accessible. Admins will receive an email containing more information about this change, as well as changes in Vault and exporting Hangouts data.

Google Hangouts on web will redirect to Google Chat on web starting November 1, 2022, and Hangouts will no longer be accessible.

Beginning November 1, 2022, Google Hangouts on web will redirect to Google Chat on web, and Hangouts will no longer be accessible. Admins will receive an email containing more information about this change, as well as changes in Vault and exporting Hangouts data.

Google Workspace users can live stream meetings publicly via YouTube.

Once enabled by an Admin, Google Workspace users can live stream meetings publicly via YouTube. You can initiate a live stream in Meet by navigating to Activities panel > Live Streaming and selecting your channel from the list. Live streaming is useful in situations where you want to present information to large audiences outside of your organization, giving them the opportunity to pause and replay as needed, or view the presentation at a later time.