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During the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies either developed new or exponentially strengthened their software for video calls and online meetings. With everyone utilizing online video platforms while working from home, companies needed to have the best open-source software with the highest quality of video and sound, and ability to have as many people join as possible.
With all the competitors out there, we believe Google Meet is one of the top performing video calls and meeting platforms.
A very important aspect of any online platform is to be user-friendly and easy to use. Google Meet definitely provides that.
Google Meet has a very clean and minimalistic design. Options and features are clearly organized so you do not need a how-to guide or manual to learn how to share your screen, turn your video or microphone on or off, or to add a virtual background.
To join a meeting or to create a new meeting, all you need to do is open up Google Meet in a web browser. When you are creating a meeting or starting a new one, a unique URL, dial-in phone number and meeting PIN will be generated for you to share with those you are inviting to the meeting.
Feature | Description |
Multiple Screen Layouts | You can choose whether you want to view all the participants in a sidebar, as a tiled view, or just spotlight one person |
Screen Sharing | It’s easy to share your screen with other participants in Google Meet. You can choose to share everything or just one specific application, browser window, or document |
Real-time Captions | There is an option to ‘Turn on Captions,’ which will generate real-time captioning during the conference |
Noise cancelation | This is a newer feature that will help minimize and filter out background noise |
Record conference calls | All video conferences can be recorded with specific privacy and safety protocols, which are expanded on below. |
Access to G Suite | With a Google Meet account, you also get access to all of Google’s G Suite products and project management apps. The best part? All the apps will seamlessly integrate! |
Free version | There is a free version of Google Meet, and then of course there are also subscription plans to purchase. |
Breakout rooms | Put your participants into sub-video conferences. This allows you to divide all participants into smaller groups so they can have more in depth discussions. You can easily close Breakout rooms and return to the larger discussion where the smaller groups can share what they discussed with everyone! |
No one really likes to think about the amount of information and data that others can find about online. However, we think Google Meet is one of the more trustworthy online platforms out there. Since it is a Google product, it uses the same security and privacy protection protocols that Google uses. All Google Meet video conferences are encrypted – meaning that the information is converted into a code to prevent unauthorized access. Google continuously monitors and updates safety measures to ensure the highest level of protection.
You no longer have to plan your vacations around one meeting or miss a meeting because you’re running late due to more traffic than expected. As long as you can connect to the Internet, you can join a Google Meet conference call. This also means that Google Meet works on any device and through multiple platforms. For instance, you can join a meeting from your desktop or mobile device using any web browser without installing any software, or you can choose to download the Google Meet app.
Google Meet has different plans that allow you to have anywhere between 100-500 participants in one video conference call. This means that Google Meet is a great option for every meeting, from a one-on-one check-in, a small group project to company-wide meetings, or online presentations.
Google Meet also features an ‘Enterprise’ plan, which means you can have a more custom Google Meet subscription and plan.
Are you holding a live presentation or webinar, and you know there are some participants that cannot make it at the scheduled time? With Google Meet, there are options to record the conference call, so anyone can access it at any time.
Google Meet has security and safety protocols around recording that we really appreciate. For instance, you can only record if:
Also,
The free version of Google Meet offers basic features at a high quality, with seamless connection, strong privacy and safety. You can have a one-to-one meeting for 24 hours, and a group meeting for an hour before Google Meet will end the meeting on the free plan. Additionally, the maximum number of participants allowed with the free version of Google Meet is 100.
We recommend Google Meet for small to mid-sized companies and organizations or for individuals who want an easy, user-friendly video conference solution with basic features at a high-quality.
With that said, if you are a larger organization who will have high number of participants in meetings or are an individual who wants to have more host management and security features with a bit more advanced features, then we would have to say that Google Meet is probably not the best option for you.
Overall, we think Google Meet is the most user-friendly and easiest video conferencing software to understand and navigate. It is a great option for an online meeting and video conference software, but whether it is best for you depends on what you need it for.
