Even though things are slowly opening back up and some folks are even going back to work, video calls will be a crucial part of the workforce moving forward. Google is making sure to keep their video calling solution up to date.
On Friday, they announced an update for Google Meet coming soon to bring forth a bunch of new features to catch up to what Zoom is doing. They’re adding things like custom backgrounds and ability of background blur into the mix in coming months. They’re also bringing the option to use Meet on your Nest Hub Max which currently allows up to 16 users but will go up to 49.
More features set to arrive are:
- Hand raising: Increase participation in larger meetings by enabling participants to “raise their hands” when they have a question or something to say.
- Meeting attendance: Give meeting hosts a simple way to see who attended their meeting.
- Breakout rooms: Make it easy for large meetings to split into smaller groups, have parallel discussions, and reconvene once finished.
- Q&A: Provide a channel for the audience to ask questions without disrupting the flow of the conversation.
- Polling: Engage participants in large meetings with real-time polling.
- Additional moderator controls: Give meeting hosts additional controls for muting, presenting, joining, and more.
Having Google Meet already integrated into Gmail, Google is trying to better compete w/ Zoom & other video calling apps. Unfortunately, there is no specific word on when the features will arrive but hopefully its sooner rather than later.
