Google Meet users can now assign up to 25 co-hosts per meeting, get expanded safety features

Google is expanding meeting moderation controls in Google Meet with a range of new features. Google Meet users will now be able to assign up to 25 co-hosts per meeting, allowing them to access and utilise the host controls. They will also be able to use safety features to limit who can share their screen, send chat messages, mute all users and end meetings.

Users will be able to control who needs to request for permission to join a meeting through the “Quick access” setting to. Previously, these safety features were only available to Google Workspace for Education customers. These controls will now be available for all Google Meet users on the desktop and mobile.

“We hope these expanded controls make it easier for you to keep meetings productive, safe, and help prevent potential disruptions,” Google said in a blog post. “Additionally, delegated co-hosts can handle responsibilities such as—muting participants, launching polls, managing Q&As—giving you more time to focus on leading discussions and guiding attendees through presentations,” it said.

New controls

The tech giant also detailed new controls for meeting hosts, which can be extended to co-hosts. Users will need to ensure that the ‘Host Management’ option that appears after selecting ‘Host Controls’ is toggled ‘On’. When enabled, hosts can limit who can share their screen as well as who can send chat messages. They can also mute all attendees with one click, end the meeting for all and control who can join the meeting and how they can join with the ‘Quick Access’ setting. This feature will only be available for specific Workspace editions

For applicable Workspace editions, meeting hosts will be able to share hosting privileges with up to 25 meeting participants per meeting, by granting them host controls in the people panel.

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The moderation and safety controls will be available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and learning Upgrade, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. They will also be available to users with personal Google Accounts.

The Quick Access settings will be available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers. It will not be available to Google Workspace individual customers or users with personal Google accounts.

If users have assigned co-hosts in a meeting, they will be indicated as such with a security shield icon. The ability to add co-hosts will be available to Google Workspace Essentials, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Business Standard, Business Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, Education Plus, and Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers. It will not be available to Google Workspace Business Starter, Frontline, and Nonprofits, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.

The tech giant is also updating the ‘People’ panel on its video conferencing platform. “Additionally, we’ve added the ability to search for a meeting participant. This will allow you to quickly navigate to a specific user to mute them, kick them, or assign host privileges. The updated people panel will be available on web and mobile,” it said.

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