If you use Google Meet to make video calls, the search giant has added a new feature that you can try. You can now use a hand gesture to raise your hand during Google Meet video calls instead of clicking on the hand-raise icon.
For the uninitiated, the Raise Hand feature in Google Meet is used as a non-verbal signal to alert the meeting organizer and other participants that you want to speak or ask a question. It"s a digital equivalent of how someone raises their hand while sitting in a group.
If there are moderators in a meeting they get notified when someone raises their hand. Moderators have the permission to accept or decline a hand-raise request in a video call. With the new Google Meet gesture, you can show your hand in front of the camera with your palm facing towards it.
This is similar to how you can use hand gestures to trigger emoji reactions in FaceTime video calls in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS 14 Sonoma. For instance, you can make a heart shape using both hands to make a heart emoji or thumbs down with both hands to show stormy rain.
Google said in a blog post that the hand-raise gesture will only work if you"re not an active speaker in the meeting. The feature is disabled by default and you can turn it on by going to More Options > Reactions > Hand Raise Gesture.
Starting today, you can also raise your physical hand and Meet will recognize it with gesture detection. To ensure the gesture is detected, make sure your camera is enabled and your hand is visible to the camera, away from your face and body.
The new raise hand gesture is rolling out to various Google Workspace tiers, including Google Workspace Business Plus, Business Standard, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Starter, Education Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade customers, and Google Workspace Individual subscribers.
Google Meet has got several new features the recent months such as On-The-Go driving mode, 1080p video calling support, Q&A moderation, etc. The search giant also updated Google Drive and added a full-screen task view to Google Calendar.