As distance learning continues, Google Meet is launching a handful of new features, including emoji reactions to help students express themselves better and more moderation controls for teachers.
Google says its “first priority” at Meet is “to make sure meetings are safe and secure”. Last year, he blocked anonymous users and allowed teachers to control who can chat and present. New features in the coming months include:
- End the meeting for everyone, including break rooms, to avoid unsupervised discussions after a teacher leaves [Coming soon]
- Silence all participants simultaneously [Next few weeks]
- Hosts control whether students can unmute [April]
- Main moderation controls in Android and iOS applications [Coming months]
Meanwhile, Google is improving the integration between Classroom and Meet [later this year]:
- Students will not be able to attend classroom meetings before teachers
- Only students in the Classroom list can participate in a call
- Each teacher in Classroom will host the meeting by default for managing multiple users. Also coming to Meet
Group rooms can also be booked in advance on Google Calendar, while an administrator control will allow you to determine whether accounts from another school can participate in calls:
This will make it easier to facilitate things like student-to-student connections between districts, professional development opportunities for educators and outside speakers who visit a class.
In August, Google Meeting is adding emoji reactions as a “light, non-disruptive way” to react and engage in class. The hand button at the bottom of the screen opens a panel showing a line of reactions – controllable by administrators – with the ability to define emoji skin tones. The ability to virtually raise your hand remains.
In the coming months, Google Meet will work better on low-bandwidth connections, as well as adding call transcripts aimed at absent students. Other announcements today include:
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