Raise your hand in Google Meet

You can raise your hand in Google Meet to let the moderator know you want to speak.

About Moderators

Anyone who schedules or starts a meeting will be the meeting host. If you transfer or schedule a meeting on someone else's calendar, the other person could become the meeting host. By default, there is only one meeting host per meeting but you can add up to 25 co-hosts once inside the meeting.

Moderators receive notifications for hands raised in the order they’re raised. After a participant speaks or asks a question, you can lower their hand so others can speak.

Raise or lower your hand

When someone raises their hand, all participants are notified. The Hand Raise icon appears on the participant’s display and they’re moved to the main grid so moderators can find the participants who have their hands raised.

To raise your hand:

1.  Scroll to the bottom of the screen  click Hand raise .

To lower your hand:

1. Scroll to the bottom of the screen  click Lower hand .

Tip: You or the moderator can lower your hand. If the moderator lowers your hand, you receive a notification. If you speak and don’t lower your hand, your hand is automatically lowered. You can click “Cancel” to keep your hand up.

Lower hands as a moderator

When someone raises their hand, the moderator finds a notification on the bottom of the meeting window. To dismiss the notification, click Close  or Open Queue. 

You can also open the people panel to check and lower hands:

1. At the bottom right, click People .
2. Scroll to the “Raised hands” section.
3. To lower a hand, next to the participant’s name, click Lower hand .
4. To lower all hands scroll to “Raised hands” and click Lower all.

Tip: If a moderator presents while on a different tab, and a hand is raised, they receive a sound notification.

Raise your hand through gesture detection

Important:

• To raise your hand through gesture detection, turn on your camera and ensure the feature is enabled in your settings.
• This feature is available for:
  • Google Workspace Business Plus
  • Business Standard
  • Enterprise Essentials
  • Enterprise Plus
  • Enterprise Standard
  • Enterprise Starter
  • Education Plus
  • The Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers
  • Google Workspace Individual subscribers

You can use a hand gesture to raise your hand in a video call. When you raise your hand, a highlighted Hand raise icon displays and is visible to all call participants.

Turn on gesture detection to raise your hand:

1. In the meeting, click More options Settings .
2. On the left, click Reactions .
3. Turn on Hand Raise Gesture.

If you want to lower your hand, click Hand raise .

Tips:

• When you raise your hand, a “Raise your hand” message displays for a brief moment. When you lower your hand while the message displays, the Hand raise turns off.
• This feature only works if there's one hand visible and must be away from your face and body.
• If you're an active speaker in the meeting, gesture detection is turned off. When you’re no longer an active speaker in the call, gesture detection turns on again.