Google is updating Meet so at least you won't have to look at your hollow, careworn face

Google has pushed through modifications for that thing that isn't Zoom or Teams. Meet is getting a polish. It is fair to say that Meet has not been the slam-dunk it might have been as remote and hybrid working suddenly expanded. Enterprises already in the Microsoft 365 world mostly embraced Teams while "Zoom" became as much a …

[cornetman]

It's about time for some standardization in this space. All these walled garden messaging and video services aren't really in anyone's best interests.

[Dinanziame]

Each solution probably has incompatible video feeds... But anyway, it seems impossible to standardize something as basic as chat apps, so it seems unlikely to happen for videoconferencing

[Charlie Clark]

They're all using WebRTC: what more standardisation do you want?

[gormful]

I actually prefer Meet to either Teams or Zoom, and use it whenever I can.

But I'm trying not to get too attached to Meet, because Google will inevitably drop it in a few years regardless of its popularity.

[rvt]

I tried it last Dec and compared to teams it looked like an alpha version of some startup company trying to hurry itself into the online meeting space. What a piece of cr*p it is, and not even a native version.. al in the browser and you must use chrome...

[Charlie Clark]

I assume you're talking about the web version? I always found that to be a bit of a hog. Until I came across Teams as an Electron app: has the fan whirring with any kind of video feed.

Meet, previously known as Hangouts, has always had excellent networking performance. I've also use the call out function a couple of times: useful when you're away from home and making international calls. While this has been phased out, Google has at least refunded the balance, which can't be said for all such providers.

The new version offers support for up to 250 participants. If that includes video then that means some serious network performance. As I normally disable video I'm not worried about a screen full of faces, but that's a lot of multiplexing! The inclusion of realtime subtitling and international dial in numbers for all calls will also be useful for some.

[cyberdemon]

May I just say

This article reminds me of how much I love the journalistic style at El Reg :D

Thanks "Richard Speed", you made my day.

[Joe Gurman]

Have they changed Meet....

....to allow people without Google accounts to join meetings? No? Guess I still won't be using it, no matter what its features are(n't).

[Anonymous Coward]

Ironically Meet often seems the highest quality. Starts instantly; frame rate at least appears higher than the other two.

[Waseef]

Meet, Google's video-meeting app, has received a massive redesign that includes many user experience tweaks for desktop users as well as a slew of new features, including multipinning, which allows you to highlight several streams instead of just one, as well as new AI-driven video capabilities for light changes, autozoom, and a new Power Saver option that restricts data use on slow mobile networks. The aim of today's publication, according to Google, is to make meetings "more immersive, inclusive, and efficient." The new UI doesn't appear to be a major overhaul, but it does put more controls and features at your fingertips rather than hiding them in a menu.