Discover Google Meet hidden features: boost your video meetings

Key takeaways

• Google Meet provides essential features such as hand raising, customizable backgrounds, and various meeting layouts to enhance communication and professionalism during video calls.
• Breakout rooms, polling, and jam boards integration facilitate interactive discussions and real-time collaboration, making meetings more productive and engaging.
• Robust privacy and security measures, along with seamless integration with Google Workspace and calendar scheduling, ensure user data protection and efficient meeting management.

Why use hidden features in Google Meet

Using Google Meet's advanced features not only enhances the overall meeting experience but also allows you to work smarter and more efficiently. These tools are designed to improve accessibility, engagement, and personalization, ensuring that everyone feels included and can contribute effectively. Features like live captions make communication clearer, while breakout rooms facilitate better collaboration in smaller groups. Additionally, customizing your background or using noise cancellation can help create a more professional and distraction-free environment. By taking advantage of these hidden features, users can elevate their virtual interactions, fostering better connections and more productive outcomes.

1. Raise your hand in meetings

Tired of interrupting others while trying to speak during virtual meetings? The Raise Hand feature in Google Meet is designed to make communication more seamless and respectful. It allows participants to signal when they’d like to contribute without accidentally talking over someone else. By simply tapping the "Raise Hand" button in the meeting controls, your request becomes visible to everyone in the call, including the host, ensuring a smoother and more organized discussion.

The tool is particularly useful in large group meetings, educational settings, or any scenario where structured conversation is important. It helps maintain order and ensures that everyone gets a chance to share their thoughts.

Tips for using Raise Hand effectively:

• Once you've spoken, remember to lower your hand by clicking the "Lower Hand" button to avoid confusion.
• Utilize this feature to make meetings more inclusive, as it gives quieter participants a clear way to contribute without worrying about interruptions.

Whether you're in a classroom, a brainstorming session, or a company-wide meeting, the Raise Hand feature helps create a more productive and respectful virtual environment.

2. Customize your background

Want to appear more professional during virtual meetings or hide distractions in your environment? Google Meet offers a convenient option to change your background or apply a slightly blurred effect, ensuring you always put your best foot forward. Whether you're in a messy room, working on the go, or want a more polished, branded appearance, this option has you covered. It’s a simple way to maintain focus on your ideas rather than your surroundings.

To change background:

1. Before your meeting: open the self-view menu and click ‘Change Background’.
2. Choose your look: select from Google’s pre-uploaded backgrounds, upload your own custom image for a personal or branded touch, or opt for the blur effect for a subtle, professional vibe.
3. Adjust the blur level if needed for a natural appearance.

This easy-to-use tool ensures attendees stay focused on what truly matters — your contributions and ideas — without distractions getting in the way. Whether you're presenting to clients, working with your colleagues, or attending a casual catch-up, Google Meet's background customization helps you stay in control of your image.

3. Adjust meeting layouts

Google Meet gives you the flexibility to customize how participants appear on your screen with a variety of layout options. Whether you're hosting a large video call with dozens of attendees or having a more intimate one-on-one conversation, these layouts allow you to control the visual experience and tailor it to your needs.

Options:

• Tiled view: perfect for large meetings or group discussions, this layout allows you to see multiple participants at once, making it easier to engage with everyone. It's ideal for collaborative sessions or team check-ins.
• Spotlight layout: best for presentations or when a single person is speaking, this layout focuses the attention on one individual, ensuring they remain the center of the meeting.

To switch layouts, simply find the layout button located in the bottom-right toolbar during your meeting. Explore the options and choose the one that works best for your session. These tools make it easy to adapt Google Meet to any kind of meeting scenario, enhancing your experience and engagement.

4. Utilize breakout rooms

For larger meetings, Breakout Rooms are a game-changer, providing an easy way to enhance collaboration and productivity. Google Workspace users can divide participants into smaller groups, allowing for more focused discussions, brainstorming sessions, or collaboration on specific tasks — all without the hassle of setting up separate meeting links. This feature is perfect for organizations, educational institutions or any business running collaborative or interactive meetings. Breakout Rooms help ensure everyone has a voice and can contribute effectively, even in large virtual gatherings.

How to set up Breakout Rooms:

1. During your meeting, click the “Activities” button located in the top-right corner of your screen.
2. Select “Breakout Rooms.” You can manually assign participants to rooms, automatically distribute them, or customize the number of rooms needed.
3. Monitor the progress of the breakout sessions in real-time, and when it’s time to regroup, simply call everyone back to the main meeting with one click.

Breakout Rooms are a seamless way to foster deeper engagement and collaboration, making virtual meetings as effective as in-person ones.

5. Conduct polls during meetings

Engage your team or audience effectively by using Polls in your meetings. Whether you're gathering feedback, gauging opinions, or simply encouraging interaction, this tool helps make decision-making quick and seamless while keeping everyone involved. Polls are an excellent way to break the ice, spark discussions, or ensure everyone’s voice is heard in a structured and organized way.

How to create a Poll:

1. Click on the “Activities” menu during your meeting and select “Polls.” This feature is designed to be user-friendly and accessible for both hosts and participants.
2. Create your questions, and include multiple-choice answers for easy selection. You can craft as many questions as you need, tailoring them to your specific goals for the meeting.
3. Publish the poll live during the meeting to encourage immediate participation or schedule it in advance to save time and streamline your agenda.

Once participants respond, the results appear automatically, allowing you to analyze feedback in real time. This makes the process interactive and efficient, ensuring you can make informed decisions on the spot or use the data to guide future actions.

6. Share jam boards for brainstorming

Visual collaborative tools are essential for brainstorming, teamwork, and generating new ideas, and they’ve become a cornerstone of effective collaboration. While Google’s Jamboard is no longer available, there are still plenty of fantastic alternatives to explore. Google Meet now integrates seamlessly with top third-party whiteboard tools like FigJam, Lucidspark, and Miro. Each offers advanced features designed to make collaboration even easier within Google Workspace. These tools are worth trying to keep your team connected and creative!

7. Enable live captions

Accessibility matters! Google Meet offers live captions to ensure participants can follow along with ease, regardless of background noise, hearing challenges, or language barriers. This feature is a game-changer for large global groups, remote workers, and online education, helping to create a more inclusive and seamless communication experience.

Activating Live Captions is simple — just click the "CC" button during your meeting, and captions will automatically appear at the bottom of your screen. They provide real-time transcription, making it easier for everyone to stay engaged and on the same page, even in noisy or multilingual environments. Whether you're hosting a brainstorming session, a lecture, or a team update, live captions are here to enhance accessibility and improve understanding for all participants.

8. Record and transcribe meetings

Never miss a single detail with the ability to record and transcribe your meetings for future reference. Google Meet makes it easy for Google Workspace users to record important discussions, decisions, or training sessions so they can be revisited anytime, ensuring nothing important slips through the cracks. This feature is perfect for teams working together across time zones, employees who couldn’t attend, or simply keeping a detailed archive of meeting content

Steps to record a meeting:

1. During the meeting, click the three-dot menu in the meeting controls.
2. Select “Record Meeting” from the options provided.
3. Once the session ends, the recording automatically uploads to Google Drive, conveniently stored for easy access and sharing.

For even greater efficiency, pair your recordings with AI note-taking tools like MinutesLink. MinutesLink processes your calls and provides accurate transcriptions, automatically joining meetings from your Google Calendar so you never miss a discussion. This combination allows you to create detailed, searchable meeting notes that save time, improve accuracy, and ensure you capture every critical point discussed. Best of all, all you need is a Google Account to get started. With MinutesLink, staying on top of your meetings has never been easier!

9. Use noise cancellation

Worried about distracting sounds during calls? Google Meet's Noise Cancellation feature has you covered! It automatically filters out unwanted audio clutter such as keyboard typing, barking dogs, background conversations, and other disruptive noises, ensuring a smoother and more professional meeting experience.

✍🏻 Noise cancellation tip:
This powerful tool can be easily accessed through your Google Workspace settings either before or during a call. Simply enable it to enjoy crystal-clear audio and keep the focus on what truly matters — the conversation. Whether you're working from home or a busy office, this tool helps create a better environment for effective communication.

10. Integrate with Google Workspace

Maximize productivity by pairing Google Meet with the broader Google Workspace suite. Easily share and collaborate on Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides directly within the call, allowing everyone to view and edit in real time. This seamless integration eliminates the need for constant switching between tabs or sending multiple links, keeping your focus on the conversation at hand.

By streamlining collaboration, teams can save time, reduce misunderstandings, and ensure meetings are more impactful and efficient. Whether you're brainstorming concepts, finalizing a presentation, or reviewing data, Google Meet and Workspace make teamwork simple and effective.

11. Schedule meetings via Google Calendar

One of the best features of Google Meet is its seamless integration with Google Calendar making scheduling and managing meetings incredibly simple. This tool allows you to effortlessly schedule recurring calls, project check-ins, or client presentations without having to switch between platforms. The convenience of Google Calendar ensures all your meeting details are in one place, and participants are automatically notified.

How-to:

1. Open Google Calendar and click "Create" to start setting up your meeting.
2. Add a clear meeting title, invite participants by typing their email addresses, and set the meeting date and time to ensure everyone is on the same page.
3. Click the "Add Google Meet video conferencing" button to generate a meeting link. This link can then be shared via an email invite or directly through the calendar invite.
4. Add any additional details or attach relevant files to your invite to ensure participants have all the information they need beforehand.

With just a few clicks, your meeting is scheduled, participants are informed, and everyone has easy access to join at the designated time. Google Meet and Calendar together streamline the process, so you can focus on what really matters — productive and engaging meetings.

12. Join meetings from Gmail

Convenience is key, and now you can access Google Meet directly from your Gmail inbox, streamlining your workflow like never before. This means no more fumbling through multiple tabs or searching for links — it’s all seamlessly integrated in one place, making virtual meetings easier to manage.

How to join via Gmail:

• Open your Gmail and look for the Google Meet option in the left-hand sidebar.
• From there, you can either click Join a Meeting to enter an existing meeting or launch your own with just a few clicks.

This simple yet powerful integration not only saves you time but also helps you stay organized by keeping your communication tools in one centralized location. Whether you’re catching up with teammates or hosting a presentation, getting connected has never been this hassle-free.

13. Control data privacy and security

With increasing concerns over data privacy, rest assured that Google Meet is designed to prioritize secure and private communication for all users. Meetings hosted on Google Meet come with encrypted video calls by default, ensuring that your conversations stay protected from unauthorized access. Additionally, hosts have access to robust management tools, giving them full control over who can join their chat sessions and participate in meetings.

To enhance security even further, Google Meet lets you use strong meeting codes and access management, making it difficult for uninvited guests to join. Options like two-step verification and the ability to lock meetings after they’ve started add an extra layer of protection, making Google Meet a trusted platform for private and confidential calls. Whether you're hosting a business meeting or a personal chat, you can count on Google Meet to safeguard your communication.

14. Share videos and music

Enhance your meetings with engaging videos and music using Google Meet's live sharing feature for YouTube. This feature lets you share YouTube videos in real-time during calls, creating more dynamic and memorable presentations. Currently, live sharing is available on Android devices for YouTube Premium members, but participants without Premium can still join the session when initiated by a Premium member.

To share a YouTube video, the Premium member simply selects the video through the activities menu or the YouTube app during the call. Note that this feature requires signing in to YouTube with a personal Google account. Make your presentations stand out with multimedia that captivates your audience and keeps them engaged!

Summary

With its many hidden capabilities, Google Meet moves beyond basic video calls to become a flexible, powerful tool for businesses, remote teams, educators, and more. By leveraging these tools, you’ll get the most out of every meeting — whether you're working together, brainstorming, or hosting.

It’s time to experience the difference Google Meet can make in your workflow. Start exploring these functionalities and enhance how you meet, work, and connect.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I raise my hand in Google Meet?

To raise your hand in Google Meet, simply log into your Google Account, join a meeting, and click on the hand raise icon located on your screen. This action will notify all participants and allow the moderator to manage speaking order effectively.

Can I customize my background in Google Meet?

Yes, you can customize your background in Google Meet by applying a blurred effect, including a slightly blur option, or uploading your own images and wallpapers for a personalized touch. You can also adjust your self-view settings, depending on your device.

How do I create breakout rooms in Google Meet?

To create breakout rooms in Google Meet, the meeting host can manually assign participants or shuffle them randomly into different rooms for focused discussions. Only the host has the permissions to initiate this feature.

What is the benefit of using live captions in Google Meet?

The primary benefit of using live captions in Google Meet is that they enhance accessibility by providing real-time text of spoken content, thus making meetings more inclusive for attendees who may have hearing impairments or language barriers.

How does noise cancellation work in Google Meet?

Noise cancellation in Google Meet works by filtering out background sounds, such as typing or construction noise, to enhance audio clarity during meetings. This technology ensures a more focused and productive communication experience for your organization.

How do I use Google Calendar with Google Meet?

To create a Google Meet link in Google Calendar, sign in with your Google Account, open or edit an event, click "Add Google Meet video conferencing," fill in event details, invite guests, and save. The Meet link will be automatically added for attendees to join.