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Google Meet may be a useful app for working professionals, but it isn’t easy to use when you’re walking or driving on the road. To address that, the search giant has added a new driving mode to Google Meet which it likes to call “On-The-Go” mode.
The mode displays a simplified user interface in the app with big and easy-to-tap buttons. It reduces the clutter and only displays the important options such as mute/unmute, hand raise, and audio device selection during calls.
You can take meetings while walking, in a car, or on your daily commute in public transport. The feature automatically turns off the video feed during meetings and shows key information such as the active speaker and number of users on the call. However, it does offer an option to view presented content.
In its blog post, Google stated:
As people are increasingly on the go, it’s becoming more common to join meetings while walking, in a car, or on public transportation. That’s why we’re introducing the On-the-Go meeting experience, which will make it easier for you to focus on the critical meeting details, cut down on external distractions, and save bandwidth with an audio-only experience.
Google Meet’s On-The-Go mode has been in development for a while, and it’s now rolling out to all Workspace customers and users with personal accounts. The feature is enabled by default and the app will detect that you’re in motion and prompt you to use On-The-Go mode. You can turn off the prompts by going to the Menu > Settings > Meeting.
Apart from that, Google has made some improvements to Google Meet Viewer Mode. Users in Viewer Mode can now send emoji reactions during video calls to show their engagement. Also, meeting hosts and co-hosts can upgrade a viewer to a meeting contributor while using the picture-in-picture mode.
Google has released a stream of Workspace features in recent months, including 1080p video calling support for group calls, emoji reactions in Sheets, Q&A moderation, ability to turn off individual video feeds, Activity page, and client-side encryption for mobile.
