Learn more about the updated live stream experience.
Learn which Google Workspace editions can live streamIn-house and cross-domain live streaming is available with these Google Workspace editions:
- Enterprise Starter
- Enterprise Plus
- Enterprise Standard
- Education Plus: This is available to users with a 'Staff' or 'Student' licence.
- Teaching and Learning Upgrade: This is available to users with a 'Teaching and Learning Upgrade' licence.
Compare Google Workspace editions or learn about your available Meet features.
If live streaming is on for your work or school account, you can let people in your organisation watch your video meetings. With cross-domain live streaming, admins can also allow up to 50 different trusted workspace sub-domains to join their live streams. The maximum number of live-stream viewers depends on your Google Workspace edition.
Tip: If you're a Google Workspace administrator who manages Google Meet for your organisation, first allow live streaming or set up cross-domain live streaming.
Who can view a live stream
Only guests in your organisation can watch live streams. If your admin turns on cross-domain live streaming, then guests in your organisation and in trusted Workspace domains can watch. All participants in your organisation can stop and start the stream during the meeting and record the event. Guests who join as 'view-only' can't participate in the meeting or control streaming and recording.
Tip: Live stream organisers will see a viewer count at the top of their screen. The live stream counter will show every new viewer until the first 100 users. After 100 users, it will round to the nearest five.
Supported Meet browsersYou can use these browsers to view live stream meetings:
- Chrome Browser
- Microsoft® Edge®
- Mozilla® Firefox®
- Opera®
- Apple® Safari®
- Real-time employee and staff training
- Academic information with students
- Conference materials that can't be shared in person
- Organisation-wide presentations with multiple presenters
- Guests may be designated as view-only
Set up a live stream with Google Calendar
Google Meet: Livestream a meeting
Part 1: Create a live-stream event
- Open Google Calendar.
- Click
Create
event
More options.
- Add the event details, such as date, time and description.
- Add the guests that can fully participate in the video meeting.
- All guests added to this event can be seen, heard and can present their screen.
- People from other organisations and trusted domains can be added. Only people in your organisation can record and control streaming.
- Next to Join with Google Meet, click the down arrow
Add live stream.
- Click Add live stream again to confirm.
- Click Save
Send.
Note: Streaming does not automatically start. During the meeting, at the bottom right, clickLive streaming
Start streaming.
Part 2: Create an additional event for view-only guests
To invite specific people to the view-only live stream, create a view-only event. The event is added to their Calendar and includes the link for view-only guests.
People invited to the event are not seen or heard in the meeting, and can’t present, record or control streaming.
Tip: If invited, view-only guests can join live streams, even if their accounts don't support live streaming or their organisations have live streaming turned off.
- Open Google Calendar.
- Click the live stream event that you created
Edit
.
- At the top, click More actions
Create view-only event.
- Add guests or rooms for view-only access and other details such as a description.
- Click Save
Send.
Remove a live stream from a Google Calendar event
- Open Google Calendar.
- Click the live stream event
Edit
.
- Next to Join with Google Meet, click the down arrow
Remove live stream.
- Click Save.
Tip: The meeting link changes when you add or remove live streaming. Be sure that you share the updated link with your guests.
Start and stop a live stream
If allowed by an administrator, any participant in the same organisation as the meeting organiser can start or stop the live stream.
Can start or stop a live stream | View only, can’t control live stream |
Meeting organiser | |
You’re in the same organisation as the live steam organiser | Guests who join view-only |
You’re allowed in live stream by an administrator | |
You’ve joined as a full participant |
- Open Google Calendar and join the video meeting.
- Select More
Start streaming.
- Confirm that you want to start streaming. 'Live' is indicated at the top left when streaming is on. View-only guests can now watch the meeting using the stream URL.
- Select More
Stop streaming.
- Confirm that you want to stop streaming.
Record a live-stream event
Full participants from the same organisation as the meeting organiser can record the live stream so that people can watch the event after the meeting ends. Live-stream events are not automatically recorded, so you must manually start and stop recording. Learn how to record a video meeting.
Guests who join 'view-only' cannot control recording.
Watch a live stream event
Tip: People using the live-stream link cannot share their camera or microphone on the livestream.
To watch a live-stream event, you can:
- Click the live-stream link in the Calendar event or an email.
- Select 'Watch the live stream' under Other joining options in the green room.
- Watch from a Meet hardware-friendly meeting room added to the event.
When you watch a live-stream event, you can:
- Send reactions
- Use Polls and Q&As
- Adjust volume
- Add captions
- Stop and start the live playback.
- Set the received video quality.
- Switch to full-screen mode.
Tip: To watch the event later, ask the meeting organiser if a recording is available. The live stream can only be viewed while being broadcast live.
To display live stream info:
- At the top right, click Live stream details
.
- In the right side panel, the live stream info displays.
Add captions to your live stream
To use captions for your live-stream event, meeting participants should first turn on live-stream captions from the main meeting. Live-stream captions will appear in the same language as set in the meeting and are available in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
For meeting participants:
- Join a meeting with live streaming turned on.
- At the bottom right, click Activities
Live streaming.
- Select the language for captions from the menu
click Start streaming.
For live-stream viewers:
- On your computer, on the live-stream viewer, click Turn on captions
or Turn off captions
.
- On your mobile device, on the live-stream viewer, at the top right, tap Menu
Subtitles.
Conduct a poll or Q&A in your live stream
Important: Hosts can disable Q&A for live stream participants from their computer.
When you create a Q&A or poll in a live stream, it's automatically available to both meeting participants and live stream participants.
- Learn how to turn on Q&A
- Learn how to moderate Q&A questions
- Learn how to conduct a poll in a Google Meet meeting
View your live-stream report
After a live stream, the meeting organiser receives an email with a Google Sheets report. Learn how to view your live stream report.
Related resources
- Troubleshoot issues with live streaming
- Troubleshoot issues for live stream organisers
- Use hardware to live stream video meetings
- Hold large remote events – Google Workspace Learning Centre
- Tips for video meetings – Google Workspace Learning Centre