Live stream a video meeting

In-house live streaming is available with Google Workspace for Education Plus, Enterprise Standard and Enterprise Plus editions. 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 meeting. 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.

Who can view a live stream 

Only guests in your organisation can view a live stream. 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 browsers

You can use these browsers to view live-stream meetings:

  • Chrome Browser
  • Microsoft® Edge®
  • Mozilla® Firefox®
  • Opera®
  • Apple® Safari®

What you can share via live stream with Meet

  • 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

Part 1: Create a live-stream event

  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click Plus Create and then More options.
  3. Add the event details, such as date, time and description.
  4. Add the guests that can fully participate in the video meeting. 
    • All guests added to this event can be seen, heard and present their screen.
    • People from other organisations can be added. Only people in your organisation can record and control streaming. For example, use this event to invite the speakers for your organisation’s meeting. 
  5. Next to Join with Google Meet, click the down arrow ""and then Add live stream.
  6. To invite view-only guests, select an option:
    • Click Copy Copy and then share the live stream URL in an email or chat message. 
    • Continue to Part 2: Create an additional event for view-only guests.
      • Tip: Only guests within your organisation can view the live stream. You can add up to 100,000 view-only guests.
  7. Click Save.
  8. Streaming does not automatically start. During the meeting, select More ""and then 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. You can add up to 100,000 view-only guests.

People invited to this event are not seen or heard in the meeting and can’t present, record or control streaming.

  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click the live stream event you created and then Edit "".
  3. At the top, click More actions and then Create view-only event.
  4. Add guests or rooms for view-only access and other details such as a description.
  5. Click Save and then Send.

Remove a live stream from a Google Calendar event

  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. Click the live stream event and then Edit Edit.
  3. Next to Join with Google Meet, click the down arrow ""and then Remove live stream.
  4. 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  

 

  1. Open Google Calendar and join the video meeting.
  2. Select More ""and then Start streaming.
  3. 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.
  4. Select More ""and then Stop streaming.
  5. 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 aren't 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 interact with the meeting participants or others in the live stream.

To watch a live-stream event, guests can:

  • Click the live-stream link in the Calendar event or an email.
  • Watch from a meeting room that is added to the event and set up with Chromebox or Chromebase for meetings.

When you watch a live-stream event, you can:

  • Stop and start the live playback.
  • Set the playback speed and video quality.
  • Play the video on a TV.
  • 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.

Related topics:

 

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