Mute all, emojis & more: Google brings new features to Meet

Google says the new 'mute all participants' feature will give meeting hosts more control by helping them prevent or stop disruptions coming from unmuted users. This feature is available for desktop users and will expand to other platforms in the coming months.

Google Meet has added the ability for meeting hosts to mute all participants at once. However, the feature is currently limited to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and Education Plus customers.

The 'mute all participants' feature will be available by default to meeting hosts. To use this option during a video call, head over to the top right corner of the screen and click People > Mute all.

Google says the new 'mute all' feature will give meeting hosts more control by helping them prevent or stop disruptions coming from unmuted users. This feature is available for desktop users and will expand to other platforms in the coming months.

While meeting creators and calendar event owners can mute all participants at the same time, they do not have the ability to unmute them. Google Meet participants will be able to unmute themselves as needed.

The mute all participants feature is currently rolling out only to Rapid Release domains and it will take up to 15 days for the feature to be visible. Additionally, it will be released to Scheduled Release domains starting March 3, 2021.

In the coming months, the new host option to mute all participants in Google Meet will launch to additional Google Workspace editions including Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, and Nonprofits customers.

Apart from this, Google Meet will soon add the ability for educators to end meetings for everyone on the call -including in breakout rooms - preventing students from staying on after the teacher has left.

Further, in the coming months, educators will also have access to key moderation controls, like who can join their meetings or use the chat or share their screen, directly from their iOS or Android devices. Later this year, Classroom and Meet will work together even better. With the upcoming update, students will not be able to join calls ahead of their teacher and all teachers in Classroom will have access to Meet host controls.

Furthermore, Google will be introducing new admin controls for Google Meet including the ability to end any meeting within their school from the investigation tool. Later this year, Google will introduce emoji reactions in Meet to increase student engagement and inclusivity in Meet.

"As part of our commitment to building products and programs to expand learning for everyone, we're bringing new features to Meet to help educators keep virtual classes secure and students engaged," Google said.