Updated: July 11, 2020
Google Meet and Zoom are two of the most popular online meeting applications on the market.
Zoom has always been available to everyone. Google Meet used to only be available to Google Workspace subscribers. On April 29, 2020 Javier Soltero, Vice President & GM of Google Workspace, posted that Google would be rolling out a Meet version that is free for everyone.
Updated: September 23, 2020
Google Meet, which is available to all users of Google Workspace and consumer Gmail users, is an easy to use online meeting application. As do all meeting apps, Meet supports camera, audio and screen sharing.
As far as audio hardware goes, there are a number of options. Some work better than others, depending on the environment the meeting host or attendee is in.
Keep in mind that just one attendee who introduces too much ambient noise can degrade the meeting experience for all attendees.
Updated: May 5, 2020
In March 2017, Google introduced a new online meeting experience called Hangouts Meet. On April 7, 2020, the app was rebranded to “Google Meet.”
This online meeting capability used to be a major differentiator between consumer Gmail and business Google Workspace.
A Google Meet meeting could only be initiated by someone who was part of an organization using Google Workspace and for which the Meet capability has been enabled for the Google Workspace organization. However, the ability to be a Google Meet host will soon be available to anyone with a Google account—including a free Gmail account.
Updated: July 15, 2020
It’s a challenge to keep with Google’s various iterations of chat, online meeting and Hangouts products—as well as the branding of these apps. In fact, we need to frequently update this post.
Google now has three distinct components in this category that are a part of Google Workspace’s core services, a.k.a. core apps.
Here is a roundup of the Google Hangouts, Meet, Chat (and now Rooms) offerings.