#TechBytes: Handy new features announced for Google Meet classes
What's the story
Google">Google has announced a new set of features to make Google Meet, its famous virtual conferencing solution, more useful for educators.
The platform is already being used by millions of students and teachers for online classes, and these new updates will further improve their experience, bringing the service on par with that offered by Zoom.
Let's take a look at Meet's all-new capabilities.
Feature #1
Larger 49-person tiled view
Even though Google Meet allows up to 100 participants to join a virtual meeting for free, the number of participants a person can see at a time has been limited to 16.
Starting September, Google will change that by introducing a larger tiled view, with a 7x7 grid, to let you see and interact with up to 49 people at the same time.
Feature #2
New Jamboard whiteboard for students
Google will also integrate Meet with its digital whiteboard product called Jamboard.
According to the company, Jamboard will serve as a collaborative tool to let students share ideas, try creative approaches, and express their views on lessons being given during the class.
This tool is also set to debut in September, along with the larger tiled view.
Feature #3, #4
Background control, virtual hand-raising
For seamless video conferences, without worrying about where you are sitting, Google is bringing the option to blur backgrounds or replace them with virtual ones (already available on Zoom).
Also, to ensure easy participation, the service is adding virtual hand-raising, a feature that will let the teacher know that the student wants to ask or tell something, without disrupting the session.
Exclusives
Features exclusive to G Suite Enterprise for Education
Google is also bringing some exclusive features for G Suite Enterprise for Education customers.
This includes breakout rooms to split classes into smaller groups for discussions, attendance tracking to quickly find who has been skipping the class, Q&A feature to let students ask their questions, and polling to let them share their views and opinions on different topics.
Availability
Availability before the end of this year
All the features, except September-scheduled tiled-view and Jamboard, will be rolled out before the year-end (somewhere between October and December).
The release will close the feature-gap between Meet and its rivals, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, that have already enabled many of these features in their products.
Notably, Microsoft has even added a Together Mode to make participants appear in a shared background.