Many startups, companies, and educational institutions around the world are switching to digital meetings using services like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other video conferencing tools. And recently, Google made its Google Meet video calling service free for everyone. Whether you’re a teacher, student, developer, or entrepreneur, you can get the most out of Google Meet with a few useful extensions.
While simple, Google Meet lacks some key features such as virtual background, background blur, Whiteboard in Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. This is where third-party developers come into play with extensions.
Because Google Meet is a web-based service for desktop computers, users can download extensions from the Chrome Web Store to enhance their video conferencing experience with features that are not available otherwise.
In this post, we’re going to talk about the six best Google Meet extensions to enhance the Google Meet experience. Extensions include enabling grid view, turning on virtual backgrounds, push to talk and more. Lets start.
Note: The extensions mentioned in this post are available for all Chromium-based web browsers, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera and Brave.
1. Google Meet Call Scheduler
You usually have to hold online meetings within a certain time limit. Google Meet offers the clock functionality in the upper right corner, but there is no way to set a live timer and not be aware of it. You can use the Google Meet Call Time extension to add timers to Google Meet meetings.
Download and install the extension using the link below and enable it in the browser. The next time you start a video call in Google Meet, you’ll see a live timer in the upper right corner. You can also tap on it and increase the time limit.
2. Google Meet Grid View
If you’ve used Zoom to hold meetings, you should be aware of the gallery grid view that shows more than 49 people. Google Meet also supports a grid view, called a tile layout. But the functionality is limited compared to a third-party extension.
You can visit the Chrome Web Store and download the Google Meet Grid View extension.
The extension provides several options for customizing the grid view experience in Google Meet. You can view video-only participants, highlight speakers, enable grid view by default, and even remove yourself from the grid.
It can be useful when you have a meeting with 30-40 participants.
3. Dating Participation
Sometimes you may want to track video call attendance throughout the week/month. Unfortunately, Google Meet does not offer such an option to automatically receive participation. For this, you must download the Meet Join extension from the Chrome Web Store.
The method is simple. When you join the online meeting, you can tap on the Meet Join extension, select Add a new Page; this will create a new spreadsheet with the names and timestamps of the participants.
4. Virtual Background for Google Meet
I’m surprised that Google Meet still doesn’t offer any way to change the user background in a video call. Google promised to include the background blur option in the future.
You may want to hide the background for obvious reasons. You can download the Virtual Background extension for Google Meet.
While on a call in Google Meet, you can tap on the Virtual background extension and it will present you with some ready-to-use digital backgrounds. Select the relevant one and it will apply the live effect on the video call.
5. Google Meet Push to Talk
This is my favourite. I missed the push to talk functionality of the Zoom app when switching from Zoom to Google Meet. Push-to-talk, as the name suggests, lets you press and hold a specific key to activate the microphone, and when you lift your finger from the key, it turns the microphone off. It’s more convenient and much better than using the mute button.
You can download the Google Meet Push to Talk extension and by default it is set to Spacebar on the keyboard. You can remap any key on the keyboard. From the next meeting, you can hold the spacebar to turn on the microphone and lift your finger to turn it off.
6. Google Meet Plus
Google Meet Plus is an extension that everyone should have. It takes the entire video calling experience to the next level.
With Google Meet Plus, you can use the Whiteboard function to share and discuss ideas. You can share your emotions with the built-in emoji pack. There is also an option for the timer. You can also enable push to talk feature from the extension settings.
All functions are nicely placed in a toolbar in the upper left corner. You can drag and drop anywhere on the screen.
Use Google Meet Like a Pro
Using these extensions above, you can quickly transform your Google Meet experience from boring to feature-rich. As of now my favorite extensions are Push to Talk, Virtual background and Google Meet Plus. What about you? Mute the sound in the comments section below.
Next: Want to master Google Meet? Read the post below to find the best tips and tricks for Google Meet.
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