Last Updated on 22/11/2021 by Sunaina
Google Meet is gaining new audio and video locks that will allow hosts to turn off other participants’ microphones and cameras. The new functionality allows you to mute a person and prevent them from unmuting themselves until you unmute them.
Google introduced the option for hosts to silence everyone in a group call at once earlier this year. This latest feature goes a step further by prohibiting participants from unmuting themselves at any time during the conversation.
If a host activates an audio or video lock in the main meeting, it will be applied to breakout rooms as well. Any modifications made to a lock setting within a breakout room, on the other hand, have no effect on the settings of other breakout rooms or the main conference.
According to Google, audio and video locks give meeting hosts more control over their meetings by allowing them to determine whether to enable different degrees of involvement from members. It also enables them to deal with disruptive conference attendees.
It’s worth mentioning that if the host activates the audio or video lock, participants using versions of the Android and iOS applications that don’t support the new functionality will be ejected from the meeting. If users attempt to attend a meeting that has the locks activated, they will be required to upgrade their app in order to be admitted. The attendees will be allowed to rejoin the meeting if the host turns off the locks.
The new audio and visual lock capabilities are now available to all Google Workspace clients, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
Google has been adding new capabilities to Meet in recent months as it competes with Zoom and Microsoft Teams in the work-from-home age brought on by the epidemic. For example, the business introduced a new tool last month that automatically changes the brightness of your webcam. In addition, Google updated the Meet UI and added new features in April. In order to maintain and attract additional users, the videoconferencing platform has collaborated with other services such as Otter.ai.
