- Google Meet adds waiting rooms for calls
- Hosts can admit participants or send them back to rooms
- Only select Business, Enterprise, Education, and Workspace users receive support
Google is finally adding waiting rooms to its video conferencing software in an effort to give hosts more control over who joins meetings and when.
With the new feature, Google Meet participants will be placed in a waiting room before they can join the call to avoid interruptions and give the host more time to set up the call with tools like screen sharing and recording.
Those joining via the waiting room will see a confirmation message to let them know they are in the right place to avoid any confusion.
Waiting rooms are coming to Google Meet
Google explained that hosts can enable or disable waiting rooms before the meeting starts, so smaller catch-ups can take place directly in the main “room.”
Hosts and co-hosts will be able to admit or deny participants, send one-way announcements such as information about delays, and direct participants from the main room to the waiting room when necessary.
Since this is a business-centric feature, it’s no surprise that it’s not offered to individual account holders.
Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Standard/Plus/Essentials/Essentials Plus, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning add-on, and Workspace Individual subscribers will be eligible to add a waiting room.
While this may be big news for Google Workspace customers, it’s a feature that has been missing for a long time. Zoom already has a “waiting room” since 2020, when the platform saw huge pandemic-induced successes, and Teams already has the “lobby”.
Further improving Meet, Google now offers Ask Gemini in Meet for Enterprise Standard and Plus users. A sidebar panel uses AI to summarize ongoing discussions, identify takeaways and action items, and catch users up if they joined late.
Earlier this month, the company also added “AI-powered makeup” to ensure participants look their best without any effort.
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