Google Meet

Last updated

Google Meet
Developer(s) Google
Initial releaseMarch 9, 2017;7 years ago (2017-03-09)
Stable release(s)
Android, original2024.04.07.622678568 / April 11, 2024;3 days ago (2024-04-11) [1]
iOS, original114.1.0 / May 1, 2023;11 months ago (2023-05-01) [2]
Android, Duo 240.0.623553666 / April 11, 2024;3 days ago (2024-04-11) [3]
Android TV, Duo240.0.623553666 / April 11, 2024;3 days ago (2024-04-11) [4]
iOS, Duo237.0 / April 3, 2024;11 days ago (2024-04-03) [5]
Platform Android, Android TV, ChromeOS, Fuchsia, iOS, iPadOS, Web
Predecessor Google Duo (Google Hangouts)
Type Communication software
License Freemium
Website meet.google.com

Google Meet is a video communication service developed by Google. [6] It is one of two apps that constitute the replacement for Google Hangouts, the other being Google Chat. [7] It replaced the consumer-facing Google Duo on November 1, 2022, with the Duo mobile app being renamed Meet and the original Meet app set to be phased out. [8]

Contents

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google announced Meet was to be made available to all users, not just Google Workspace users, in which it previously was. The use of Meet grew by a factor of 30 between January and April 2020, with 100 million users a day accessing Meet, compared to 200 million daily users for Zoom as of the last week of April 2020. [9] [10] [11]

History

Logo of Google Meet used from March 2017 to October 2020 Google Hangouts Meet icon (2017-2020).png
Logo of Google Meet used from March 2017 to October 2020

After being invite-only and quietly releasing an iOS app [12] in February 2017, Google formally launched Meet in March 2017. [13] The service was unveiled as a video conferencing app for up to 30 participants, described as an enterprise-friendly version of Hangouts. It was available through applications for desktop, Android, and iOS. [14]

While Google Meet introduced the above features to upgrade the original Hangouts application, some standard Hangouts features were deprecated, including viewing attendees and chat simultaneously. The number of video feeds allowed at one time was also reduced to 8 (while up to 4 feeds can be shown in the "tiles" layout), prioritizing those attendees who most recently used their microphone. Additionally, features such as the chatbox were changed to overlay the video feeds, rather than resizing the latter to fit.[ citation needed ] On November 1, 2022, Hangouts was officially converted and no longer available. [15] Google suspended its usual 60-minute limit for unpaid accounts.[ citation needed ]

In August 2020, it was reported that Google was planning to eventually merge Google Duo with the business-oriented Google Meet. [16] In December 2021, this objective had been dropped, but Duo continued to be available and updated. [17] [18] In June 2022, Google reversed course and announced that Duo would, in fact, be merged into Meet. [19] The merger began in August, with the Duo mobile app being renamed Meet. The Google Duo web app now also redirects to the Google Meet web app. [8] The original Meet app is intended to be phased out over the next months. [20]

Features

Features of Google Meet include:

Google Workspace accounts

Features for users who use Google Workspace accounts include:

In March 2020, Google temporarily extended advanced features present in the enterprise edition to anyone using Google Workspace or G Suite for Education [35] editions. In January 2022, these features were removed for educators and workspace users unless they subscribed. [36]

Personal accounts

In March 2020, Google rolled out Meet to personal (free) Google accounts. [37]

Free Meet calls can only have a single host and up to 100 participants, compared to the 250-caller limit for Google Workspace users [38] [28] and the 25-participant limit for Hangouts. [39] Unlike business calls with Meet, consumer calls are not recorded and stored, and Google states that consumer data from Meet will not be used for advertisement targeting. [40] While call data is reportedly not being used for advertising purposes, based on an analysis of Meet's privacy policy, Google reserves the right to collect data on call duration, who is participating, and participants' IP addresses. [41]

Users need a Google account to initiate calls [42] [43] and like Google Workspace users, anyone with a Google account is able to start a Meet call from within Gmail. [44] [45]

Technologies

In accordance with the WebRTC standard, Google Meet uses VP8 and VP9 video codecs for video stream compression [46] and Opus audio codec for voice stream compression. [47] [48] In April 2020, Google announced plans to support the AV1 video codec. [49] [50] [51] In February 2021, Google announced a new very low-bitrate codec for speech compression called "Lyra", that can operate with network speeds as low as 3kbit/s that avoids robotic voice audio. Google trained machine learning models on thousands of hours of data in order to create the method used by Lyra on compression and transmittion of voice signals. [52]

Google Meet uses proprietary protocols for audio and video stream control. Interoperability between Google Meet and SIP/H.323-based conferencing equipment and software is available for Google Workspace customers through third-party services. [53]

Google Meet is optimized for low-bandwidth mobile networks through WebRTC and uses QUIC over UDP. Optimization is further achieved through the degradation of video quality through monitoring network quality. [54] For packet loss concealment Meet uses WaveNetEQ. [55]

Hardware

In May 2020, Asus unveiled videoconferencing hardware designed for use with Google Meet in conference room settings, which includes a "Meet Compute System" mini PC, and a dedicated camera and microphone. [56]

On September 15, 2020, Google unveiled Meet Series One, in partnership with Lenovo, which includes a Meet Compute System with Edge TPU, "Smart Camera", "Smart Audio Bar" with noise reduction, and a choice of remote control or touchscreen that supports the Google Assistant. [57]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Jitsi is a collection of free and open-source multiplatform voice (VoIP), video conferencing and instant messaging applications for the Web platform, Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS and Android. The Jitsi project began with the Jitsi Desktop. With the growth of WebRTC, the project team focus shifted to the Jitsi Videobridge for allowing web-based multi-party video calling. Later the team added Jitsi Meet, a full video conferencing application that includes web, Android, and iOS clients. Jitsi also operates meet.jit.si, a version of Jitsi Meet hosted by Jitsi for free community use. Other projects include: Jigasi, lib-jitsi-meet, Jidesha, and Jitsi.

Google Workspace is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet and Chat for communication; Currents for employee engagement; Drive for storage; and the Google Docs Editors suite for content creation. An Admin Panel is provided for managing users and services. Depending on edition Google Workspace may also include the digital interactive whiteboard Jamboard and an option to purchase add-ons such as the telephony service Voice. The education edition adds a learning platform Google Classroom and today has the name Workspace for Education.

WebRTC is a free and open-source project providing web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication (RTC) via application programming interfaces (APIs). It allows audio and video communication and streaming to work inside web pages by allowing direct peer-to-peer communication, eliminating the need to install plugins or download native apps.

Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud, synchronize files across devices, and share files. In addition to a web interface, Google Drive offers apps with offline capabilities for Windows and macOS computers, and Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. Google Drive encompasses Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides, which are a part of the Google Docs Editors office suite that permits collaborative editing of documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings, forms, and more. Files created and edited through the Google Docs suite are saved in Google Drive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Hangouts</span> Communication software by Google

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Allo</span> Instant messaging app by Google

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AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) is an open, royalty-free video coding format initially designed for video transmissions over the Internet. It was developed as a successor to VP9 by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), a consortium founded in 2015 that includes semiconductor firms, video on demand providers, video content producers, software development companies and web browser vendors. The AV1 bitstream specification includes a reference video codec. In 2018, Facebook conducted testing that approximated real-world conditions, and the AV1 reference encoder achieved 34%, 46.2%, and 50.3% higher data compression than libvpx-vp9, x264 High profile, and x264 Main profile respectively.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Messages</span> Messaging application developed by Google

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoom (software)</span> Videoconferencing software

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References

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