Google Announces New Updates to Meet and New Tools

On Tuesday, Google announced great new features to help make virtual education easier. These include updates to its Google Meet conferencing service. Plus a new homework helper tool that only requires a photo from a phone.

For Meet, a larger tiled view that can show up to 49 meeting participants, will now arrive in September. This was first announced by the search engine company in June this year.

The company first launched its tiled view for Meet in April. This feature had the ability to see 16 participants at the same time. 

So, the system allowing 49 people at once will bring Meet’s gallery view on par with Zoom’s service. Google will integrate Jamboard, its digital whiteboard product, into Meet in September as well.

In October, it will add the capability to blur or replace a user’s background in Meet. This feature was also already announced in June.

Starting in October, G Suite Enterprise for Education customers will be able to create breakout rooms in Meet. This could allow virtual classes to break out into smaller group discussions. 

Moreover in October, teachers will be able to track attendance in Meet meetings.

New Moderation Controls

Google also announces when it will roll out new moderation controls. That is to help Meet moderators and educators on the G Suite Enterprise for Education tier, manage classes more easily.

It will let moderators stop people from joining meetings after being kicked from the room or denied from entering twice. 

This might help prevent people from nefariously disrupting classes. In September, it will let moderators end a Meet class for everyone at the same time.

It will allow them to bulk approve or reject requests to join a class and turn off in-meeting chat. Furthermore, it will restrict who can present in a class.  As well as turn on a setting that won’t start a meeting until the teacher has joined.

Other Non-Meet Updates Google has Announced on Tuesday

The tech company also shared new tools to help students learn using their phones. For instance, students can now visualize nearly 100 concepts in biology, chemistry, and other STEM topics.

That is by searching for them on Google and then looking at a model of that concept in augmented reality. This can be done by the students on their Android and iOS devices. 

It will let students get help with a homework problem just by taking a photo of it. That is by using Google Lens or Google-owned education app Socratic.

These search engine’s new tools updates and a homework helper tool are meant to help with virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic. These new tools are aimed at making virtual studying easier, more effective, and fun. 

Going Back to School with Google

Meanwhile, the company is taking a virtual approach to “back to school” this year with The Anywhere School. This brings Google for Education announcements to viewers around the world. Inspired by users’ feedback, they are sharing over 50 new features across Meet, Classroom, G Suite and other products.