7 Tips to Make Google Meet Easy to Use

During the pandemic of the new coronavirus, Google Meet quickly became one of the most popular video calling services in the world, with telecommuting becoming the norm.

Google Meet is a powerful alternative to Zoom. Also, most of the working people are already using some of Google’s many services, and it was relatively easy for many to switch to Google Meet.

But if you’re a regular user of Google Meet for business communication, here are seven tips to improve your overall user experience.

Blur/change the background

With Google Meet, you can blur or change the background to minimize the areas of concern or hide what’s happening behind you.

To do so, click More Options and select Apply Visual Effects.

From there, you can choose from a variety of custom backgrounds and upload your own images. You can also blur the background slightly or completely, depending on your taste.

Fix the participant’s screen

If you want to pinpoint the person or participant who is speaking, there are two ways.

Click on the pin icon that appears when you hover over a participant’s video. If you cannot find the participant, click the “Show All” icon at the bottom right.

The number of participants in the meeting is also displayed here. Simply find the participant in the list and click the pin that appears next to their name. The participant’s video stays on the screen until you delete it.

Enable live subtitles

By default, Google Meet has subtitles turned off. Simply click ” More Options ” below the video and turn on ” Subtitles “to enable live subtitles.

You will then be asked to select the language you want to use in the meeting. Once you make your selection, all subsequent meetings you attend on your device will see subtitles in that language.

However, keep in mind that the subtitles displayed on the screen are not always accurate.

Create a breakout room

Google Meet gives administrators the freedom to divide participants into smaller groups. This is especially useful for meetings with a large number of participants.

Breakout rooms are only available in certain Google Workspace editions below.

• Essentials
• Business Standard
• Business Plus
• Enterprise Enterprise
• Education
• Nonprofits
• Workspace Business

Breakout rooms can be created before or during a meeting via Google Calendar.

How to create a breakout room in advance

When creating a Google Meet appointment in Google Calendar, add participants and then click ” Change settings for this meeting “.

Then, ” Breakout Room ” is displayed. Select the number of rooms and drag-and-drop to the breakout room participants simply. You can also shuffle groups randomly.

How to create a breakout room during a meeting

1. Click ” Activity ” at the bottom right.
2. If you are using an eligible plan, the breakout room will be displayed. You can create up to 100 breakout rooms in a single meeting.
3. Select the number of breakout rooms. After that, simply enter the participant’s name in a specific breakout room or drag and drop the participant’s name into each breakout room.
4. ” Opening the room to click.”
5. ” Edit the session just click the”, also possible to make changes to the breakout session.

Check the microphone and camera.

It’s pretty frustrating when you attend a new meeting if you don’t know if other participants can hear you. With Google Meet, you can check both your microphone and camera before joining a meeting without worrying about your microphone being broken or tweaking your camera settings.

Here’s how to check both the camera and the microphone.

1. Open Google Meet on your computer.
2. Next, click ” Create a meeting for the next time or later “. If you start the meeting now, you will not be able to confirm. Select the first option to create a link to the meeting.
3. You can see yourself and how you hear your voice on Google Meet with the option ” Check Audio and Video ” just below the camera view.
4. Test the microphone and camera.

You can also try out visual effects and blur the background before joining the meeting, as shown in the image below.

Record the meeting

Google Meet also allows you to record meetings, which is especially useful for newcomer training and training sessions. However, this feature is only available if your organization supports it.

To record the meeting, click Activity at the bottom right and select Record. The recording will start immediately, and all participants will be notified that the meeting is being recorded.

When you stop recording, the file is saved in the conference organizer’s My Drive. ” Recording of Meet another folder named” is created automatically.

Google Meet automatically shares the recording link with the organizer and the person who started the recording. You can also use Google Meet to share your screen with other participants.

Enhance functionality with extensions

The appeal of Google Chrome is that it has a wealth of extensions that you can use to enhance your capabilities further.

Keep in mind that these extensions are often made by third parties rather than by Google.

For example, an extension called “Meeting Notes” allows you to take notes quickly without switching tabs during a video call.

In addition, the Google Meet Enhancement Suite offers additional features such as a button to mute everyone and auto-approval of participants.

Bonus: Maybe not suitable for “holding a webinar.”

Google Meet is a fairly powerful tool for online meetings. However, it is not always the best choice for online training and webinars.

Google has added many new features, but it wasn’t originally designed to host promotional events online.

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