'What is Google Meet?': A guide to Google's professional video-conferencing service, including pricing options and how to join a meeting

Steven John

Sep 23, 2019, 23:50 IST

'What is Google Meet?': A guide to Google's professional video-conferencing service, including pricing options and how to join a meeting

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Google Meet is a great way for colleagues to stay in contact when they're not in the same room.

Google Meet is a video-conference-calling platform designed primarily for professional use, which links remote colleagues together for real-time interaction.
On a basic Google Meet call, up to 25 people can speak and share video with each other at once. If you subscribe to higher Google Meet membership tiers, the number of people who can join a call goes up to 50 or 100.
You need a paid G Suite account in order to set up and start Google Meet video conferences, but anyone with a standard Google account can join and participate in a Google Meet session.
The Meet platform doesn't work on all web browsers. It won't function in Safari, for example, and works best in Google Chrome.
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Google Meet, also known as Google Hangouts Meet, is built to let dozens of people join the same virtual meeting, and speak or share video with each other from anywhere with internet access.

It's meant for use by businesses and other organizations, and it's a great way for colleagues who don't work in the same building to communicate.

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A Google Meet organizer can share whatever is on their screen with everyone on a call, and any participant can turn their own audio and/or video feed off at any time, participating however they want.

How much Google Meet costs

To set up and host a Google Meet session, you need to have a paid G Suite account, which costs $6 a month at its "basic" level. Anyone with a standard Google account can join and participate in Google Meet meetings, however.

G Suite has a few different membership tiers, and the more you pay, the more people you can have on a single Google Meet call.

G Suite Basic, as noted, costs $6 a month per user. With this, you can meet with up to 25 people at once.
G Suite Business costs $12 a month per user. With this, you can meet with up to 50 people at once.
G Suite Enterprise costs $25 a month per user. With this, you can meet with up to 100 people at once.

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You can pay more money to get higher Google Meet capabilities.

Each G Suite tier also comes with extra Google Drive storage space and advanced data security options. There are also versions built for schools and educators, which Google offers for free to certain institutions.

How to join a Google Meet call

You join a Google Meet session by using a code that's created when the event organizer schedules the meeting.

On both the Meet mobile app and on a computer, simply pull up Google Meet and click or tap "Use a meeting code" (it may say "Enter a meeting code" on mobile). Once your code is in, provided the session has started, you'll enter the call and can begin talking with your team.

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You'll be asked to enter a customized meeting code before you join.

The creator of the meeting can also send out a direct link, which you just have to click once to join the meeting.

Just remember that you need to allow Google Meet to access your phone or your computer's camera and microphone when you set it up, or the program won't function properly.