Get started with Google Meet
Google Meet may be accessed on your computer, mobile phone, or tablet.
Google Meet is a video conferencing tool available for impromptu video calls as well as scheduled calls using Google Calendar. Visit Google's Meet training and help for more details. Please see below for specific instructions.
Start a Google Meet meeting
- Go to calendar.google.com, log in with your UIndy credentials, click the appropriate day and time to create your meeting.
- Fill in the appropriate details and click the Add Google Meet video conferencing button. A meeting URL will automatically be generated.
- To add people to your recently created Meet, click the Join with Google Meet button.
- Click on the Join now button.
- Click the Add Guests field and enter in the names or emails of the guests.
- Click Save.
- Click Send to send the invitation to guests.
Guests will receive an email with the event information and a link to the video meeting. They also will see the event details, including the link the the Meet in their Google Calendar.
- In a web browser, go to meet.google.com, log in with your UIndy credentials.
- Click Join or start a meeting.
- You will be prompted to name the meeting or leave the name blank.
- Click Continue.
- In the next window, click Start meeting.
- A window will appear with the option to Copy joining info that can be emailed or texted to participants, or Add people where participants can be added manually.
- Adding people by name or email will prompt you to send them an invite with the meeting information.
Join a Google Meet meeting
- In Google Calendar, click the event you wish to join.
- Click Join with Google Meet or Join by phone on the nature of the call.
- In a web browser, go to meet.google.com, log in with your UIndy credentials.
- Select the meeting from your list of scheduled events or click Join or start a meeting.
- Click Join Meeting.
- Click the meeting link sent to you in an email or other method.
- Follow the onscreen prompts to join the meeting.
Additional Information
You can use a phone for audio in a video or voice call in Google Meet. Instructions for different situations can be found on Google's use a phone for audio in a video meeting documentation. If you are having issues with your audio, please see Google's Fix audio or video call problems.
You can choose to share your entire screen or a specific window.
- Join a video meeting.
- In the bottom right corner, select Present now.
- You will then have the option to choose to share Your entire screen or A window.
- On the next screen, Chrome will ask if want to share the contents of your screen with Meet. Choose what you'd like. Click Share.
- To stop sharing, click Stop sharing.
You can record your Google Meet for people to view later. Note that the recording will include the main window, participant filmstrip, and presented documents. The recording will be saved in the meeting owner's Google My Drive in a Meet Recordings folder and a link to the file will be added to the calendar event if the meeting was part of a calendar invitation.
- Join a video meeting.
- Click on the three vertical dots (more options) at the lower right corner.
- Click Record meeting.
- A box will appear asking for consent. Click Accept.
- The recording will start and other participants will be notified that the recording has begun.
- To stop the recording, click on the three vertical dots (more options) at the lower right corner.
- Click Stop recording.
- You will be asked to verify that you want the recording to stop. Click Stop recording.
The file of the recording will appear in the meeting organizer's Google My Drive in a Meet Recordings folder about 10 minutes after the meeting ends. An email with the recording link will be sent to the meeting organizer and the person who started the recording. The URL will also be added to the calendar entry if the meeting was part of a calendar invitation.
If you are using Google Calendar to create your Google Meet meeting, you can also link or attach files to the calendar invite that will be available to all invitees.
- Click the appropriate day/time in Google Calendar and set up the details of the event.
- Click More options in the bottom right corner.
- The next window will allow you to add a description as well as attach files (either Google files such as Docs or Slides or files external to Google Drive).
The chat feature allows participants to message one another and share links to Google Drive files or folders. The chat icon is in the upper-right corner of the screen once the meeting has begun.
You can choose to turn closed captions on and off.
- To turn captions on, click the Turn on captions button at the bottom of your screen. You may have to scroll your mouse over that bottom of your screen before the buttons will appear.
- To turn captions off, click the Turn off captions button.
To add students to a scheduled Meet session via Google Calendar or to add them to an impromptu meeting, you will need a list of their email addresses. See Sakai's How do I export the roster? for instructions for getting such a list. Once you have a list of emails, you can copy and paste the entire list directly into the Add Guests section of a scheduled Hangouts Meet or the Add People sections of an impromptu Meet session.
You can obscure your background by blurring or replacing it with a picture.
- Within a Google Meet, click on More options by selecting the three vertical dots in the bottom right corner and select Change background.
From here, you can:
- Slightly blur your background or completely blur your background,
- Choose one of the photos shown, or
- Return to your natural background (the default).
