As Google brings out the needlessly complicated process of combining the Meet and Duo apps, it’s throwing a component copied from Zoom in the mix.
In a revamp on the Google Workspace blog, the business announced that Google Meet would soon permit you to unmute yourself by holding down the spacebar and to mute yourself again by dismissing it.
If you frequently use Zoom, this feature might sound a lot like its push-to-talk feature — because it’s essentially the same thing. Zoom has had the element since 2020, and it comes in handy whenever you want to chime in during a meeting but don’t like to stay unmuted for long. Unfortunately, Google Meet is swiping Zoom’s trick to unmute easily.
Google says it’ll start rolling out its version of the shortcut to all Workspace users on September 9th, but it could take up to 15 days for you to see it. Once it arrives, it won’t be turned on by default, so you’ll have to enable it from Google Meet’s settings.
Confusingly, Google’s efforts to merge Duo and Meet have left us with the new Meet app (the one that combines both Duo and Meet), the old Meet (Original) app, and a Duo shortcut that leads to Meet. It’s genuinely something only Google could think up. That said, we are pretty sure the new push-to-talk feature’s coming to the new Google Meet app, but it’s still not exactly clear whether it’s coming to the Meet (Original) app, as Google will eventually discontinue it.
Google Meet is a proprietary voice over IP (VoIP) and videotelephony service developed by Google, available for Android, iOS and web browsers. It is one of two apps that constitute the replacement for Google Hangouts and Google Duo, the other being Google Chat. It lets users make and receive one-to-one and group audio and video calls with other Meet users in high definition, using end-to-end encryption by default. Meet can be used either with a phone number or a Google account, allowing users to call someone from their contact list.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of Meet grew by a factor of 30 between January and April 2020, with 100 million users a day accessing Meet, compared to 200 million daily uses for Zoom as of the last week of April 2020.
After being invite-only and quietly releasing an iOS app in February 2017, Google formally launched Meet in March 2017. The service was unveiled as a video conferencing app for up to 30 participants, described as an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts. It has launched with a web app, an Android app, and an iOS app.
While Google Meet introduced the above features to upgrade the original Hangouts application, some standard Hangouts features were deprecated, including viewing attendees and chat simultaneously. The number of video feeds allowed at one time was also reduced to 8, prioritizing those attendees who most recently used their microphone. Additionally, features such as the chat box were changed to overlay the video feeds, rather than resizing the latter to fit. Hangouts was scheduled to cease operation in the first half of 2021. Google suspended its usual 60-minute limit for unpaid accounts.
In August 2020, it was reported that Google was planning to eventually merge Google Duo with the business-oriented Google Meet. In December 2021 this objective had been dropped, but Duo continued to be available and updated. In June 2022, Google reversed course and announced that Duo would, in fact, be merged into Meet. The merger began in August, with the Duo mobile app renamed Meet and the original Meet intended to be phased out. The Google Duo web app will also be redirected to the Google Meet web app.
Zoom is a cloud-based video conferencing aid you can use to engage with others virtually – both by video or audio-only or both, all while administering live chats – and it allows you to record those sessions to observe later. Fortune 500 companies used it in 2019, and in 2020 hit greater heights, racking up 227 per cent growth over the year.
When people talk about Zoom, you’ll usually hear the following phrases: Zoom Meeting and Zoom Room. A-Zoom Meeting refers to a video conferencing meeting that’s hosted using it. You can join these meetings via a webcam or phone. Meanwhile, a Zoom Room is the physical hardware setup that lets companies schedule and launches Zoom Meetings from their conference rooms.
Zoom Rooms require an extra subscription on top of the subscription and ideal for larger companies.
Main Features of Zoom
- One-on-one meetings: Host unlimited one-on-one meetings, too, with the free plan.
- Group video conferences: Host up to 500 participants (if you buy the “large meeting” add-on). However, the free plan enables you to entertain video conferences of up to 40 minutes and up to 100 participants.
- Screen sharing: Engage one-on-one or with big groups and share screen with them so they can understand what you see.
- Recording: You can record the conferences or events too.
Zoom enables one-to-one chat sessions to develop into group calls, training assemblies and webinars for the internal and external public, and global video meetings with up to 1,000 participants and as diverse as 49 on-screen videos. The free tier recognises unlimited one-on-one meetings but limits group sessions to 40 minutes and 100 participants. Paid plans begin at $15 per month per host.
Zoom has grown one of the best video conferencing software apps. It permits you to interact with co-workers when in-person meetings aren’t imaginable virtually, and it has been hugely triumphant for social events, too.
Zoom is an indispensable tool for small-, medium-, and large-sized units who need to keep in touch and maintain their daily workflows with little disruption and grow a solid preference with individuals, notably around holidays like Thanksgiving in the US and Christmas throughout the world.