During the meeting

On this page

• Use meeting controls
• Add or remove people
• Change your background
• Customize who you see
• Present in a video meeting
• Send a chat message to participants
• Record a meeting
• Use Gemini to take notes 

               

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Use meeting controls

Meeting controls are in one place on the bottom bar of the meeting window

• Consolidated controls provide more room for participants and content.
• When you point to a control, its name appears.
• To prevent accidental hang-ups, the Leave meeting button is on the right, away from the camera and mic buttons.
• All captions and participant tiles appear above the bottom bar.

Add or remove people

Add people to a video meeting in progress

1. At the bottom right, click People  Add people .
2. Enter the name or email address  Send email.

Share joining info with people you add

1. At the bottom right, click meeting details  .
2. Click Copy joining info.
3. Paste the meeting details into an email, or other app, and send.

Remove people during a video meeting

1. At the bottom right, click Show everyone .
2. Next to the participant you want to remove, click More actions .
3. Select Remove from the call.
4. On the box that opens, select one or more of the following options:
   • To just remove a participant, select Remove.
   • To remove and mark a participant as abusive, select Fill out an abuse report.
   • To make sure a participant doesn’t rejoin the same meeting, select Block.
     • Important: If you block a user, they are only blocked from the current meeting or concurrent meetings which use the same meeting code. They can still join other meetings you host. To allow users to rejoin a meeting they are blocked from, they must be manually re-invited from within the meeting.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Change your background 

Change your own background 

You can use this feature only if your organization supports it. For help, contact your administrator.

1. Go to Google Meet select a meeting.
2. On the bottom right of your self view, click Apply visual effects .
   • To completely blur your background, click Blur your background .
   • To slightly blur your background, click Slightly blur your background .
   • To select a pre-uploaded background, click a background.
   • To upload your own image for your background, click Upload a background image .
   • To add a style to your video, click a style.
   • To select a filter, at the bottom, tap Filters the filter you want to use.
   • Tip: If the filter is interactive, follow the directions on the screen to activate it.
3. Click Join Now.

Change your background with Gemini

You can use this feature only if your organization supports it. For help, contact your administrator.

Gemini for Google Workspace is available when your Google account language is set to an English dialect. Additionally, some features are available in Spanish and Portuguese. Learn more about language availability.

Use AI to create a background image

Learn more about how to change backgrounds and apply visual effects in Google Meet.

Create a background image before a meeting

1. On a computer, open meet.google.com.
2. Select a meeting.
3. At the bottom right of your self view, click Apply visual effects Generate a background .
4. Enter a prompt. For example:

• "Luxurious living room interior"
• "A magical sunny forest glade"
  Tip: For better results, try including reference to a style or mood, a setting, and objects in the environment. For example: "A cozy coffee shop with flowers."

5. (Optional) You can select a style to customize the background image you create.
6. Click Create samples to see several suggested background images.
7. (Optional) After you click Create samples, you can:
   • Edit your prompt: At the top of the panel on the right, click the prompt. Edit your prompt and click Create other samples.
   • See more suggested background images: Click Create other samples.
8. Click one of the generated images to use as your background in your meeting.
9. Click Close to exit "Generate a background" setup.

Create a background image in a meeting

1. On a computer, open meet.google.com.
2. Join a meeting.
3. On the bottom, click More options Apply visual effects Generate a background .
4. Enter a prompt. For example:

• "Luxurious living room interior"
• "A magical sunny forest glade"
  Tip: For better results, try including reference to a style or mood, a setting, and objects in the environment. For example: "A cozy coffee shop with flowers."

5. (Optional) You can select a style to customize the background image you create.
6. Click Create samples to see several suggested background images.
7. (Optional) After you click Create samples, you can:
   • Edit your prompt: At the top of the panel on the right, click the prompt. Edit your prompt and click Create other samples.
   • See more suggested background images: Click Create other samples.
8. Click one of the generated images to use as your background in your meeting.
9. Click Close to exit "Generate a background" setup.

Give feedback on generated background images

Gemini for Google Workspace is constantly learning and may not be able to support your request.

If you get an inaccurate or unsafe suggestion, you can submit feedback to us.

1. Hover over the desired image.
2. On the bottom of the image, click Good suggestion or Bad suggestion .
3. If you click Bad suggestion , you can select the issue you found and enter additional feedback.
4. Click Submit.

Provide general feedback on background images

1. On a computer, open meet.google.com.
2. Select a meeting.
3. At the bottom right of your screen, click More options Report a problem .
4. To describe your issue or suggestion, click Report an issue or Suggest an idea.
5. To help identify the issue, click Capture screenshot Send.

To report a legal issue, create a request.

 

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Customize who you see

Change how many participants you see during a call

You can change the number of participants you see on your screen. Your changes are automatically saved and appear in future meetings. The number of participant tiles may change depending on the size of your browser window.

1. On a computer, join a video meeting.
2. At the bottom, click More Change layout . Choose an option:
   • Auto: The view that Meet chooses for you. By default, you’ll see 9 tiles on your screen.
   • Tiled: The view that can show up to 49 people at the same time. By default, you’ll see 16 tiles on your screen.
     • At the bottom, move the slider to the number of tiles you want to see on your screen. The number of tiles you choose becomes the default for future meetings until you change it. In some cases, you might see a message that your selection is not saved, this can be due to performance limitations on your computer’s processor.
   • Spotlight: The active speaker or shared screen fills the entire window.
   • Sidebar: The main image is the active speaker or shared screen. You’ll see thumbnails of additional participants on the side.
3. Optional: You can hide participants who turn off their video. This doesn’t affect how their screens look. To hide non-video tiles:
   1. At the bottom, click More .
   2. Select Change layout .
   3. Turn on Hide tiles without video.

Add or remove your self-view from the grid

Your self view is automatically on when you join a meeting. 

1. Point to your self-view  click Show in a tile . 
2. Point to your self-view click Remove this tile . 

Make your self-view a floating picture

• To make your self-view float, point to your self-view click Remove this tile .
• To move your floating self-view, point to your floating self-view  drag your self-view  to a corner of your screen. 

View participant tiles

Participant tiles improve interaction and put more people at eye-level when you look into the camera.

• When someone is speaking, their tile is outlined and the speaker indicator appears in the top-right corner of their tile.
• When someone is muted, the mute indicator appears in the top-right corner of their tile.
• To see more participants, try zooming out in your browser.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Present in a video meeting

1. Join a Meet video meeting.
2. At the bottom, click Present now .
3. Select A tab, A window, or Your entire screen.
   • If you present a Chrome tab, it shares that tab's audio by default.
   • To present a different tab:
     1. Select the tab that you want to present.
     2. On the banner, click Share this tab instead.
   • If you present a Slides presentation through a tab, you can control it in Meet.
4. Click Share.
5. Optional: To unpin your presentation and show it as a tile, click Unpin .
   See how to un-pin a presentation in Google Meet using Google Workspace for business
   You can now find more participants while you present.

Tips:

• If your camera is turned on, your video is active while you're presenting.
• For better presentations and to prevent mirroring, share a new window or a specific tab instead of the meeting window.
• To share your audio, you must select Share a Chrome tab or Share this tab.

See what you're presenting

When you present your screen, you can see other participants—and what you’re presenting—at the same time.

In the meeting window, point to your presentation feed to:

• Unpin your presentation (view it as a tile) so you can view more participants.
• Mute or unmute any audio playing in your presentation.
• Remove your presentation from the meeting.

Note: You can't interact with content in the meeting window. To move through the document you’re presenting, go to the window or browser tab you're presenting from.

Stop presenting

Meeting organizers with Google Workspace for Education can prevent participants from sharing their screen. 

• In the Meet window, click Stop Presenting.
• At the bottom right, click You are presenting Stop presenting.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Send a chat message to participants

1. Join a Meet video meeting.
2. At the bottom right, click Chat  .
3. Enter a message.
4. Click Send .

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

Record a video meeting

You can use this feature only if your organization supports it. For help, contact your administrator.

Important: Record a meeting is only available on a computer.

Here’s how to troubleshoot issues when you record a meeting.

Important: Recording video meetings is only available for meetings organized by certain Google Workspace editions.

Learn how to record a video meeting.

Learn why recording is disabled

Recording may be disabled if:

• Your admin turned off recording.
• Your Workspace edition doesn't support recording. 
• Your Google Drive is disabled.
• You aren't allowed to record a specific video meeting.
• You're in a breakout room. Breakout rooms don't support recordings.

Check with your admin to make sure:

• Meet supports recording for you and your organization.
• Recording is on for video meetings

Can't find the recording button

• Confirm that your admin has turned on recording for Meet in the Google Admin console.
• Verify that you’re using Meet on a computer. Recording is only available for the computer version. 
• You can’t record if you join only to present, such as from a laptop while already in a video conference room. Join the video meeting first, start presenting, and then record.
• You can’t record if the meeting was created on a conference room device (such as Meet hardware), or was generated by another process, such as a Chrome plug in. Schedule the meeting in Calendar or be sure a person, and not a device, starts any ad-hoc meetings.
• If you can no longer record a recurring meeting that used to allow recording, make sure the meeting organizer’s account is not disabled, which also disabled recordings for the meetings they organized. To fix this, delete the meeting from the Calendar event, save it, and add a new meeting code to recreate a meeting as the new owner.

Can't find the recording

• Recordings must be generated and are not immediately available after the recording ends. 
• When ready, an email with the recording link is sent to the meeting organizer and the person who started the recording.
• The recording link is also added to the Calendar event and saved to the meeting organizer’s Meet Recordings folder in My Drive.

I used to be able to record a meeting but I'm unable to record it today

Check with your admin to make sure they have Turned on recording for video meetings. Learn more about Recording a video meeting.

My recording in Google Drive says “Still processing”

• “Still processing” means that the recording is still being prepared to view.
• To play the recording immediately, select the file and click More Download . Double-click the downloaded file on your computer.

What happens to my existing recordings after the COVID19 features expire for my organization?

Recordings will continue to be available in Drive.

I shared the recording with someone, but they can’t download it

Make sure you allow others to download your files:

1. Open Google Drive.
2. Select the recording file and click Share or Share.
3. In the bottom right, click Advanced.
4. Uncheck the box next to "Disable options to download, print, and copy for commenters and viewers."
5. Click Save changes Done.

Related resources:

• Stop, limit, or change sharing.

1. On your computer, in Google Meet, click Start or Join.
2. At the bottom right, click Activities Recording.
   • To record the meeting captions, select a language.
   • In some cases, if the recording is played on Google Drive, the recording file might be ready a few hours before the captions are available.
3. Click Start recording.
4. In the pop-up screen, click Start.
5. Wait for the recording to start. Participants get a notification when the recording starts or stops.
   • Meetings can only be recorded for a total of 8 hours, then the recording stops automatically.
6. To stop a recording, click Activities Recording Stop recording.
7. In the pop-up screen, click Stop recording.
   • Tip: The recording stops automatically when everyone leaves the meeting.

An email with the recording link is sent to the meeting organizer and the person who started the recording.

The recording is saved to the meeting organizer’s My Drive > Meet Recordings folder.

For meetings created through:

• Google Calendar: The meeting organizer is the person who creates the meeting event on Google Calendar.
• The Google Meet homepage or another product such as Gmail or Jamboard: The meeting organizer is the person who launches the meeting or generates the code.

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

 

Use Gemini to take notes

 You can use this feature only if your organization supports it. For help, contact your administrator.

Gemini for Google Workspace is available when your Google account language is set to an English dialect. Additionally, some features are available in Spanish and Portuguese. Learn more about language availability.

 

1. On a computer, open meet.google.com.
2. Select a meeting.
3. At the top right of your screen, click Take notes for me .

Learn more at the Google Meet Help Center

 

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