Google Meet – A Review of the Free Video Conferencing Tool

Google Meet

Google Meet is an outstanding video conferencing app available free for personal use, offering security features such as meeting codes and encryption in transit that rival those offered by other tools.

Google Meet allows teachers to communicate with students across the world, enabling them to organize and deliver instruction via video conference. Plus, its device agnostic nature enables participants to join from any platform!

It’s free

Google Meet is an outstanding video conferencing tool available free to all Google users, offering desktop and mobile applications, web browsers and Gmail access for meetings of up to 100 participants lasting 60 minutes each. Start a meeting instantly or schedule it into your calendar; join using an invitation code or link sent by the host of the meeting with ease!

Google has designed its software to be secure and confidential, using in-transit encryption and having servers reviewed by independent auditors to ensure compliance with privacy regulations. Furthermore, participants who disrupt calls may be removed or muted while this service includes a whiteboard feature for collaborative brainstorming or sketching between callers.

Google Meet is available on desktop, iOS and Android devices and prompts users to log into their Google accounts if necessary. Once logged in, use the menu on the left to create or join meetings as well as change camera and microphone settings via preview screen prior to call beginning. When hosting calls you can also adjust screen layout – Tiled view (showing 16 participants at once), Speaker view (with one active speaker taking up all of screen), Sidebar view (showing participants on right side of screen).

Google Meet isn’t one of the more robust free video conferencing applications; however, its advanced features still outshone more expensive competitors. For example, you can share high-resolution photos among members of your team, support RCS for sending multimedia messages over Wi-Fi or mobile networks and an extensive FAQ page that can answer any of your queries.

It’s easy to use

With Google Meet, video meetings can be hosted from any device. Participants can join from a desktop computer, tablet or mobile phone. Dial-in numbers available in over 50 countries make Google Meet even easier to join meetings from anywhere around the globe. Google Meet can accommodate up to 100 attendees easily while offering easy screen-sharing functionality and integration with Google Calendar making it an obvious choice for businesses using these products.

Google Calendar makes meeting planning easier by offering instant or scheduled access, making Google Meet an excellent way to start and manage meetings instantly or at scheduled intervals. Google Meet offers features like screen sharing, instant messaging and recording as well as call center support and RCS (Rich Communications Services), enabling users to send high-resolution photos and videos over Wi-Fi. It is an especially good solution for schools as Google Meeting offers additional privacy protection as well as compliance support with regulations like FERPA, COPPA and GDPR.

The app’s user-friendly interface makes it simple and quick to start or join meetings – even for first-time users – even for first time users. Free for individuals, but limited meeting duration of one hour with up to 100 attendees allowed at once; businesses may upgrade to Workspace Individual service which offers enhanced features and unlimited meetings.

Meeting participants can share either their entire screen or a single Chrome tab, documents and links; converse with other attendees during video conferences; use Google Live Captioning’s real-time translation feature to transcribe audio into text so everyone can follow along; its speech-recognition technology generates captions that can be paused or pinned for easy viewing; plus chat with participants!

Meetings hosted with Google Meet are encrypted during transmission using HTTPS connections that meet IETF security standards for Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP), protecting video and audio streams from uninvited access. In addition, each person in your meeting receives their own encryption key generated only during meeting setup; it never survives beyond that particular meeting session and never resides on disk.

It’s secure

Google Meet is one of the premier videoconferencing tools available, providing secure, easy and free videoconferencing sessions to everyone with a Google account. Plus, its enterprise-level security features include encryption in transit and anti-hijacking protections as well as anti-abuse measures and moderation controls to ensure meetings run safely – helping prevent embarrassing situations where sensitive information could accidentally be shared with nearby listeners.

Google Meet also features two-factor authentication through various methods, such as SMS text messages or authentication apps such as Authy or Google Authenticator, to protect users against hackers who gain access through stolen login credentials. Furthermore, the Google team has published comprehensive details regarding their data security practices across their product offerings.

Google’s plans to provide optional end-to-end encryption this year will make its platform even more attractive to customers in regulated industries like healthcare and finance. Google’s move will bring their platform up-to-speed with Zoom which already offers this feature for group calls as well as increasing competition with Microsoft Teams which already offers end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations.

As standard, all meetings in Google Meet are encrypted in transit using encryption standards established by the International Exchange for Financial Telecommunication (IETF) Datagram Transport Layer Security and Secure Real-time Transport Protocol. Each meeting generates its own encryption key which only lasts during its call and never remains on disk – this ensures that even if someone steals your meeting recording, no third parties could read its contents.

Google Meet is vulnerable to hacking due to its server storage strategy; especially since their data centers are located within the US where there are strict cybersecurity regulations in place. In case of a security breach, however, Google’s security policies have been designed to minimize loss.

While Google has yet to disclose exactly what information is stored on their servers, they have pledged to limit how much personal data they keep for each individual user and meet stringent privacy regulations – only log user Meet data when necessary for support, rather than selling or advertising using it to third parties.

It’s customizable

Google Meet provides numerous customizable features to make video conferences more productive and engaging, such as emoji reactions to speakers, picture-in-picture mode and the option to change meeting backgrounds – features which make video conferences more personal and help reduce distractions. It supports up to 100 participants at once for large meetings to take place; automatically records meetings for upload to Google Drive accounts later; supports multiple devices and browsers alike – perfect!

Google Meet is an effective tool that enables remote colleagues to work together more easily. It offers an intuitive user interface and works smoothly across devices like mobile phones and tablets, as well as being secure, compatible with other Google products like Calendar and HIPAA compliant – making it the ideal solution for calls between doctors or providers and patients or discussions regarding financial data.

Google Meet requires a G Suite subscription that costs $10/active user/month in order to take full advantage of all its advanced features, while free accounts allow access to most basic functions and can even enhance them further with Chrome extensions which add extra features and improve overall meeting quality.

Before calling into Google Meet, the preview screen allows you to adjust camera and audio settings, while during your meeting you can mute individual participants or pin someone to the center of the screen if necessary. Furthermore, Google Meet supports video conferencing on up to four devices simultaneously.

Google Meet is an ideal solution for businesses that need to communicate virtually with coworkers and clients, both inside and outside their organization. Accessible from any computer or device with internet connectivity, this app makes navigating virtual meetings a snap; its many features such as whiteboarding and breakout rooms make it a popular pick among business users.

Press ESC to close