Introduction to Google Meet
Google Meet is a free, secure video conferencing service that's part of Google Workspace. It allows users to make voice and video calls with up to 100 participants for up to 60 minutes per meeting. It is a great tool for smaller/shorter meetings within your department/team. In this article, some basic functionalities will be introduced, and links to resources with details on different features will be included.
Setup - it is there already 🙂
You do not need to download or install anything. Google Meet is part of Google Workspace, so as long as you have access to your Saga Google account, you will be able to join meetings via Google Meet.
Joining a meeting
From Gmail
When you are invited to join a meeting, you should receive an email with subject:
"Invitation: <Event name> @ <Date and time> (Your name)"
In the invitation email, there is the "Join with Google Meet" button. Simply click on that and you will be taken to the meeting page. In case the button does not work, there's also the meeting link included right below the button so you can use the link to access to page.
Once you are on the meeting page, adjust your microphone and camera to make sure they are working correctly. Then you can just click "Join now" to enter the meeting. If your microphone or camera is not working probably, it may have to do with your permission settings. See this article for troubleshooting methods.
Sometimes, instead of the "Join now" button, you may see "Ask to join" instead.
This usually happens when you signed in with a non-Saga account on the page. You can look for "Switch account" on the top right corner of the page and select your Saga account instead.
From Google Calendar
On Google Calendar, you will see the meeting too if you are invited to it. Just click on the event and click "Join with Google Meet" and you will be taken to the meeting page.
Setting virtual background
You can set up a virtual background before you enter a meeting or during the meeting.
Before entering the meeting, click on the "Apply visual effects" icon in the corner of your video preview box.
If you are already in the meeting, click on the down arrow next to your camera icon, then click on the "Apply visual effects" icon.
Then under the Background tab, you can choose to:
- Blur your background
- Add an image as your background
- Choose a background from the available ones
After configuring your virtual background, just close the pop-up and you are all set.