- Google Meet adds waiting rooms for calls
- Hosts can admit participants or expel them to rooms.
- Only certain Business, Enterprise, Education, and Workspace users get support
Google is finally adding waiting rooms to its video conferencing software in a bid to give hosts more control over who enters 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 to give the host more time to set up the call with tools like screen sharing and recording.
Those joining through the waiting room will see a confirmation message to let them know they are in the right place to avoid confusion.
Waiting rooms come to Google Meet
Google explained that hosts can enable or disable waiting rooms before the meeting begins, so that smaller meetings can move directly into the main “room.”
Hosts and co-hosts will be able to admit or reject participants, send one-way announcements such as delay information, and move participants from the main room to the waiting room when necessary.
Being a business-focused feature, it’s no surprise that it doesn’t reach individual account holders.
Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Standard/Plus/Essentials/Essentials Plus, Education Plus, Teaching and Learning Add-on, and Workspace Individual subscribers will be eligible for the lounge addition.
While this may be great news for Google Workspace customers, it’s a feature that’s been missing for a long time. Zoom already has the ‘waiting room’ since 2020, when the platform achieved enormous successes induced by the pandemic, and Teams already has the ‘lobby’.
To make Meet even better, Google is now offering Ask Gemini in Meet to Enterprise Standard and Plus users. A sidebar panel uses AI to summarize ongoing discussions, identify takeaways and action items, and update users if they joined late.
Earlier this month, the company also added “AI-powered makeup” to make sure participants look their best without any effort.
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