Google Meet is Getting a Facelift

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Right now, several ETHS teachers are choosing to use Meet over Zoom due to its ease of use and connectivity with Google Classroom; however, it's still missing many of the features we've come to love about Zoom. Thankfully there is hope on the horizon. On August 11, Google announced the timeline for new changes coming to Meet this fall. While we all wish they were here already, we are confident that the new features will address many of the challenges that teachers experience during video lessons. One advantage to Meet at this time is that students can only join when signed into their eths202.org accounts which reduces the chances of having unwanted, anonymous visitors join your sessions. They also are linked directly in Google Classroom, so links are easily accessible to students without the need to create and post by teachers.

Planned Meet updates include more control for moderators such as disabling chat (see more on this below), controlling who can share their screen, and managing join requests in bulk. They also include increased interactivity features, which are slated to come out over the next few months. These include:
Launching in September 
    • A larger tiled view with a 7x7 grid so you can see up to 49 students at once
    • An integrated collaborative whiteboard via Jamboard 

Launching in October

    • Blur or replace backgrounds
    • Attendance tracking
    • Breakout rooms

Launching later this year

    • Hand-raising 
    • Q&A features and polling  
    • Temporary recordings
Google has already launched at least three new features since school started, which are:

        Include yourself in the grid

    • Hover over your face in the top right corner and click on the little grid icon that appears. Viola! You can now see what everyone else sees and keep an eye out for semi-clothed children, manic cats, or distracting reflections in your background and mute your video accordingly.

        Cast your Meet

    • Click on the three dots in the bottom right corner and select "Cast this meeting." You'll see a list of any compatible devices such as Chromecasts, Chromecast enabled smart TVs, Google Homes, etc. that are on the same network as you. So if you're craving a larger screen and have a compatible device at home, cast your Meet there and use your smaller screen to look at documents and other work.

        Host Controls/Meeting Safety settings 

    • This feature is in the process of rolling out in our domain as I write this, so some people may already have access while others do not. In the coming days we expect this to be available to all Meet users. You can check to see if you have it in a Meet by looking (excitedly) in the bottom left corner for a blue shield symbol or by clicking on "People" in the top right. Right now you can only disable chat via these settings, but we expect additional host control features to be available in the coming months. When you disable the chat (by toggling off the "Send chat message" setting), only teachers can post in the chat.


Even without all the bells and whistles, most of the Meet feedback we've received from teachers and students so far is positive, and there are many fun extensions that you can use in the place of missing features. But that's for another time and another blog post. Check back soon for an in-depth list of some of the most popular Meet extensions that teachers are using at ETHS.

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