10 G Suite tips for video conferencing

1

Check your equipment and setup

Before you meet, make sure you have the right equipment and setup.

Desktop

• Audio—Consider wearing headphones or earbuds for better audio. To speak and listen using your phone while still viewing the video meeting on your computer, you can dial in to the call or have Meet call your phone. For details, see Use a phone for audio in a video meeting.
  Make sure Meet is using the correct cameras, microphone and speakers. Even if you’re wearing a headset, Meet might use the built-in microphone. See Change your computer’s audio settings.
• Video—Sit in a well-lit area, ideally with light on your face and not behind, to avoid creating a silhouette.

Mobile

• Audio—If you’re on the move or your network connection is poor, you can dial in to a video meeting instead of using your phone. You can also quickly switch between different audio devices in a meeting. For example, you can start or join a video meeting using your phone’s earbuds and then switch to Bluetooth in your car. At home, switch to your device's built-in speaker and use the speakerphone.
• Video—You can reverse the camera on your mobile device during a video meeting. The Meet app comes with the selfie view on, but you can reverse the camera to show a whiteboard or the room you're in. For more details, see Change your mobile camera or audio for Meet.

Sound check

• When you start a meeting, do a quick sound check. Ask people if they can hear you. If people can’t hear you in a video meeting, make sure you’re not muted. Find Mute  at the bottom of the Meet screen. If someone else is presenting or there’s background noise, mute yourself. For details, see Pin, mute, or remove Google Meet participants.

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2

Quickly schedule or start a meeting & add people to it

You can start a meeting from Gmail, by going to Meet, or entering meet.new in a browser on your computer. Then, send the meeting URL to people you want to add. To schedule a video meeting, go to Google Calendar.

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Gmail

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Calendar

3

Choose the best presenting option for your needs

To present your screen during a meeting, have the content you want to present open and ready for people to see. When you click Present now in the Meet window, you can choose from one of 3 presenting options:

• Work on a laptop and one or more monitors. Choose A window and select the screen you want to show.
• Present your entire screen. Choose Entire screen—this shows your browser, plus any tabs you have open. You might see an “infinite mirror” if you click Entire screen. To prevent this effect, try presenting from a single tab.
• To only show one tab, choose A Chrome tab.

If you're presenting, the audience can see notifications pop up on your screen. If you don't want these visible to others, use only one tab to present your screen and close all other tabs. You can also mute or turn off notifications in other Google services such as Gmail, Google Chat, and Calendar.

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4

Present from a Chrome Browser tab for high-quality video and audio

With Chrome, images and videos are high-definition (HD), making slides with embedded visuals easier to view. You can also hide sensitive information on your screen by presenting from one Chrome Browser tab using Meet.

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5

See as many participants as possible in a meeting

When you’re in a video meeting, Meet automatically switches the layout to display the most active content and participants. You can also choose a different screen layout. For example, if a lot of people are sharing ideas, you might want to use the tiled option so you can see as many participants as possible.

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6

Let participants know the meeting will be recorded

As a best practice, before your video meeting starts, inform participants that you’ll record the meeting. You can add a note to the Calendar invite or announce it before you start recording the meeting.

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Calendar

Meet

7

Use live captions to show conversation text

Make video meetings more accessible for users who are deaf and hard-of-hearing by using captions in Meet. When you turn on captions, they’re visible only on your device. If other participants in the meeting want to see captions, they have to turn them on for their devices as well. Captions are available in English only.

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8

Send a chat message to raise a topic or chime in

You can establish a cue for taking turns to speak using the built-in chat in Meet. Share links to discussion items or submit questions during a presentation without interrupting the speaker—then answer all the questions in the following Q&A session.

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9

Create a live-stream event

When you need to present to a large audience, you can create a live-stream event, instead of a regular video meeting. Up to 250 participants can attend using Calendar and Meet. Or, you can add up to 100,000 view-only guests. You can’t see or hear view-only guests in the meeting, and they can’t present, record, or control streaming.

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10

Join to present at a meeting

Whether you're starting or joining a video meeting in Meet, if you choose:

• Join now—You enter the meeting automatically, and you can interact with everyone on the call.
• Present—Only your computer's window or application is displayed in the meeting. No audio or other video is sent or received. The Present option is useful if you're already participating in a meeting in a room using Meet hardware.

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