The coronavirus pandemic has seen a rise in the use of video calling apps and companies are now adding new features based on customer feedback.
Last month, Google announced Gmail integration for Meet. The feature was supposed to make it easier for people to start Meet calls directly from Gmail. However, if you don"t plan to use Meet then Google has now added an option to disable the feature. In a new blog post (via Techdows), the company announced that the updated Gmail settings will now allow users to show or hide Meet options. Here is how you can show or hide Meet based on your preferences:
- Open Gmail and click on the Settings icon (gear icon) on the top right corner.
- Navigate to Settings>Chat and Meet and select show or hide Meet based on your preferences.
- Click on Save Change to apply the setting.
Google has also offered the option to enable or disable Meet for the whole organization and G Suite Admins can manage the settings from the Admin console. Google noted that the feature started rolling out to Gmail users on 19th May. However, it is a phased rollout and will take up to 15 days for everyone to receive the updated settings.
Google Meet is currently available for free to everyone until September 30. Google noted that it might make the service restricted to 60 minutes after that date but for now, you can get the G Suite Essential plan that gives customers access to Google Meet and Google Drive until September 30. Google recently added a bunch of new features which include 16-user tiled layout, and noise cancellation.