Start a video meeting for education

This article is for teachers. Students go here.


With Google Meet, you can start class video meetings in Classroom, Meet, Google Calendar, and Gmail on your computer or mobile device.

Before you begin: Video meeting tips

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Requirements & best practices
  • Make sure that you meet the requirements for Meet. Learn more.
  • Review best practices for distance learning at the Google for Education Teacher Center. Learn more.
  • Print instructions for getting started with Google Meet. Learn more.
  • There's a limit to the number of people you can have in a video meeting. Learn more.
  • The type of account you have determines what meetings you can join and who can join your meetings. Learn more.
Accessibility & tech tips
  • To help students who are deaf or hard of hearing, turn on live captions in Meet. Learn more.
  • If internet speed is slow, turning off your camera can improve video meeting quality. If audio quality is poor, you can use a phone for audio. Learn more.
  • If you’re using a mobile device, install the Google Meet app. Learn more.
  • Charge your device before the meeting. On some fanless devices, such as tablets and laptops, charging during the meeting can reduce video quality.

Create video meetings in Classroom

You can set up and start class video meetings in Classroom. To use Meet features in Classroom, your Google Workspace administrator has to turn on Meet for your school.

Set up a video meeting in Classroom
Create a unique meeting link that students can use to join your class video meetings. You and your students can use the same link for all of your class meetings.  
In Classroom, only you and your co-teachers can create, show, hide, or reset the meeting link or start a class video meeting. Permissions vary based on how your admin sets up Meet for your school

Create a Meet link in your class

  1. Tap Classroom Classroom app and then the class and then Settings .
  2. Under "Manage Meet link," tap More  and then Generate Meet link.
  3. A Meet link appears for your class.
  4. Tap Save.

If you make the link visible to students, it appears in their class stream.

Show or hide a Meet link for students

Students in the same organization as the primary teacher can find the class Meet link on the Stream and Classwork pages. You can hide the link from students until you want to share it.
  1. Tap Classroom Classroom app and then the class and then Settings 
  2. Next to "Visible to students on stream page," select an option:
    • To hide the Meet link from students, tap the switch Off .
    • To make the Meet link visible to students, tap the switch On .
  3. Tap Save.

Copy a Meet link

You can copy a Meet link and paste it into an assignment, question, or message.
  1. Tap Classroom Classroom app and then the class and then Settings .
  2. Next to the Meet link, tap More More and then Copy.

Reset a Meet link

If you have issues with the link, you can reset it and get a new one. The old link won't be associated with the class but will be available as an independent meeting space.
  1. Tap Classroom Classroom app and then the class and then Settings .
  2. Next to the Meet link, tap More  and then Reset.

Remove a Meet link

When you remove a Meet link, students won't be able to access it in that class. The old link won't be associated with the class but will be available as an independent meeting space.

  1.  Tap Classroom Classroom app and then the class and then Settings .
  2. Next to the Meet link, tap More  and then Remove.

Upgrade an outdated Meet link

If your Meet link is outdated, you might get a message to upgrade it. You can upgrade all outdated links or one link at a time. Outdated links won't work as intended and might let students become the host.

To get a new Meet link to replace the outdated one, upgrade your link.

  1.  Tap Classroom Classroom app and then the class and then Settings .
  2. Next to the Meet link, tap More  and then  Upgrade.

Add a Meet link to an announcement

  1. Copy the Meet link (instructions above).
  2. On the Stream page, tap Announce something to your class.
  3. Enter your announcement and below it, tap Add attachment  and then Insert Link .
  4. Paste the Meet link and then tap Add.
  5.  Tap Post .

    Tip: You can also schedule the post for later or save it as a draft. For details, go to Post, schedule, or save a draft announcement.

Add a Meet link to an assignment or question

  1. Copy the Meet link (instructions above).
  2. On the Classwork page, tap Create  and then Assignment or Question.
  3. Below the assignment or question details, tap Add attachment  and then Insert Link .
  4. Paste the Meet link and then tap Add.
  5.  Tap Assign or Ask.

    Tip: You can also schedule the post or save it as a draft. For details, go to Post, schedule, or save a draft assignment.

Start a video meeting in Classroom

After you create a Meet link for your class, you can start a video meeting in Classroom.

  1. Tap Classroom Classroom app.
  2. Tap the class. 
  3. Choose an option:
    • At the top of the Stream page, tap Meet . 
    • At the top of the Classwork page, tap Meet .
    • In an announcement or post you shared, tap the link for the class video meeting.
  4. In Meet, before you join the meeting, at the top, check that you’re signed in with your Classroom account. If you need to switch accounts, tap Switch and then select the Classroom account.
  5. Tap Join meeting.
  6. If you’re the first to join the meeting, you can add others. If you already shared the meeting link with your students, you can close the window. 
  7. When the meeting is over, tap the meeting window and then End call  to leave the meeting. 

Start video meetings in other apps

You can create, start, and join a class video meeting in Google Meet, Google Calendar, and Gmail.

Start a video meeting in Meet

In Meet, you can start an impromptu meeting or one that you previously set up. After you start the meeting, you can share the joining information with your students in a Classroom post or message.

Before you begin, install Meet on your device. After you open Meet, be sure to sign in with your Classroom account.

Tip: For greater control, you can use nicknamed meetings. Students can’t rejoin a nicknamed meeting if you are the last to leave.

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Start a video meeting in Calendar

You can create a class video meeting in Calendar and invite your students to join. 

Tip: If you create an event on someone's calendar, or transfer an event to their calendar, make sure you understand the video conferencing policies.

Set up a video meeting in Calendar

  1. Open Google Calendar and sign in with your Classroom account.
  2. Tap Create  and then Event.
  3. Choose an option: 
    • To invite people now, tap Add people and then enter your students' names or email addresses and then tap Done.
    • To create a Meet link for the event, tap Add video conferencing
  4. Enter other meeting details and then tap Save.
  5. (Optional) To send an email invitation with meeting details to guests, tap Send.  

Start a video meeting in Calendar

Before you can start a video meeting in Calendar, you have to set one up (instructions above).

  1. In Google Calendar, tap the event and then Join with Google Meet.
  2. Before you join, at the bottom, make sure you’re signed in with your school account. If you need to switch accounts, tap Switch and then select the Classroom account. 
  3. Tap Join

Watch a live-stream event

If the creator of the video meeting included a live-stream link, tap the link to watch on your mobile device’s web browser. The Meet app is not required. 

Tip: You can’t create or start and stop a live-stream event on your mobile device. For more details, go to Live stream a video meeting.

Leave a video meeting

 Tap the meeting window and then tap End call 

Start a video meeting in Gmail

You can start or join video meetings in Gmail on your computer or mobile device. When you’re in the meeting, you can invite people to join you.

Tip: If you’re a Google Workspace for Education user, to use Meet in Gmail, your Google Workspace administrator must turn on permissions to create and join video meetings.

Related topics

Manage meeting participants

As the meeting organizer, you can control how people can participate in a video meeting.

Manage access to a video meeting

As the teacher, you control who can access video meetings for your class.

When you create a Meet link for your class, you become the meeting host and current co-teachers of your class become co-hosts.

Tip: If you add or remove co-teachers from your class, their host status automatically updates.

How students join your video meeting

Your video meeting starts when you or any co-teacher joins. When students try to join, they enter a waiting room until a teacher joins the meeting.

After the meeting starts, students in your class don’t have to ask to join the meeting.

To restrict unauthorized participants in the meeting:

  • Anyone who's not part of your class must first ask to join.
  • You get notified when someone wants to join the meeting.
  • You can decide whether to let someone join.

Tip: To allow students and other meeting participants to join without a teacher present, you can control meeting access with host controls.

Manage co-hosts

When Host Management is on, the main host of a meeting can add and remove co-hosts. Learn more.

Tips:

  • If Host Management is turned off and then on again, previously appointed co-hosts are retained.
  • You can't appoint co-teachers as co-hosts if you:
    • Don’t use a Google Workspace for Education account for Classroom.
    • Use a personal Google Account.
Mute or remove a participant
  1. In the video meeting, tap More More next to the participant’s name.
  2.  Select an option:
    • To mute the participant, tap Mute  and then Mute.
    • To remove the participant, tap Remove  and then Remove.

If you remove a participant, they can't request to rejoin the video meeting. On your computer, you can invite them again.

Approve or deny a request to join a meeting

Meeting hosts can approve requests to join a meeting that come from outside your class. No one can request to join a video meeting if their request was already denied twice.

In Meet, during a video meeting:

  • When you find a request to join in the meeting window, click Admit or the More actions More and then Deny entry.
Prevent students from rejoining a meeting

Hosts can end the meeting for everyone on a Google Meet meeting. 'End the call for everyone' ends the meeting and automatically removes all participants, so that the hosts don’t have to remove participants manually.

Learn how to end a meeting for all.

Use other Meet features

Hand Raising with Google Meet

Use Hand Raise in Google Meet to let the moderator know you want to speak.

Learn more about Hand Raising with Google Meet.

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