Google Meet is rolling out a new ‘viewer mode’ — Here's how to use it

• Google Meet is adding a new feature that will set everyone as a viewer by default during meetings.
• This feature aims to assist Google Meet users in organising large meetings by reducing disruptive audio interruptions and distractions.
• Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers can now extend the maximum number of meeting attendees to 1,000.

In a recent announcement, Google revealed its plans to roll out a new viewer mode feature in its video communication service, Google Meet. This update allows users to designate participants as "viewers" when creating Calendar invites. According to a blog post on Google Workspace Updates, viewers are meeting attendees who cannot share their audio or video during the session.

By incorporating the viewer mode, Google aims to minimise potential distractions and maintain a more focused environment for large meetings. Disruptive audio interruptions will be significantly reduced, enabling participants to concentrate on the speaker and the meeting's content.

“When it’s time for the larger group to engage, hosts can transition viewers to contributors,” Google said. “Viewers will be able to use Meet features such as Q&As and polls. Viewers will not be able to use in-meeting chat or emoji reactions– viewer support for these features is coming in the future,” company added.

Here’s how to set up viewer mode

• Navigate to the video call options while setting up a Google Meet session. Locate the 'Guests' section and choose the 'Everyone is a viewer by default' option.
• After this, Google Meet turns viewers into contributors.
• Afterwards, from the same section, you can designate co-hosts and contributors by selecting them.

With the introduction of these viewer and contributor roles, Google Workspace Enterprise Plus customers can now extend the maximum number of meeting attendees to 1,000, which is a significant increase from the previous limit of 500. In the event that a host doesn't pre-configure the meeting, all users will be automatically designated as viewers once 500 contributors have joined the call. It's important to note that the maximum number of meeting attendees will remain unchanged for the other Google Workspace editions that are receiving the viewer functionality.

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