Google revises rollout schedule for new Meet web experience

Users willing to revert to the legacy Google Meet experience will have the option to do so until June 10, 2021. The new Google Meet experience will become "the standard experience for all users" on June 11, 2021.

Google has revised the rollout schedule for the new Google Meet web experience which was announced in April 2021 with updates to video feeds, the viewing and presenting experience, and the bottom bar.

For Rapid Release domains and users using Google Meet with a personal Google account, the rollout began on May 24th, 2021, while for Scheduled Release domains, a gradual rollout will begin on June 1, 2021 and will take up to 15 days for the feature to be fully visible.

Users willing to revert to the legacy Google Meet experience will have the option to do so until June 10, 2021. The new Google Meet experience will become "the standard experience for all users" on June 11, 2021.

Google noted that the use of third-party Chrome extensions including the Grid View extension could impact your experience. However, disabling any extensions that interact with Google Meet could resolve this. 

As for the new Google Meet web experience, it brings the following changes:

Video feeds

• Hovering over your video feed will show options between a tile in the grid or a floating picture.
• You can resize, reposition, and hide your video feed.
• Self-view now appears in the bottom right of the grid so that you can put more video feeds at eye level as you look into the camera.

Viewing and presenting experience

• See what you are presenting while in Google Meet.
• Unpin the content you or others share to see more and larger video feeds.
• Participant names are always visible regardless of meeting size.

Bottom bar

• Bottom bar is always visible, while not covering cover captions and bottom video feeds.
• Meeting dial-in codes, attachments, participants' list, chat, and other activities are at the bottom right to create more vertical space for seeing people and content.
• Controls are consolidated in one place with descriptions available upon hover.
• Leave call button is moved away from the microphone and camera buttons to prevent accidental call hang-ups.

Other visual updates include

• When someone speaks, their tile is outlined in blue.
• Mute indicators are subdued to reduce visual distraction.
• When there are more participants than can be shown on the grid, a tile is added so you always remember who's on the call.