Woot woot! Google recently launched new “Host Control” features for Google Meet! If you are quiet, you can hear the cheers of thousands of teachers around the world. While there are still many things that I wish Google Meet had the ability to do, these are excellent new features that are available to everyone.

One thing I have noticed recently is that there are some other great, new features coming out…but they aren’t necessarily available to all users. It depends on whether or not your district has an Education or Enterprise account. From what I can see, it does look like the host controls features will be available to all users in education accounts. As an example, I currently have access to these controls in my district EDU account, however, I do not have access to these controls in personal Google account. For any meetings that are organized in a personal account, only the meeting creator can mute or remove participants.

Here’s a breakdown of these new features that you can find in your settings menu:

Here’s a short GIF to show you how to access these settings:

Have you used these new controls with students? If so, share how it is going in the comments below! I have noticed that many users are having different experiences with Google products recently and I would love to hear if it is working the way we hope it does.

In our recent webinar, Meet vs. Zoom, myself and Melissa King discussed many of the pros and cons to both Google Meet and Zoom. At the time, one of the cons for Google Meet was the teachers inability to keep students from joining a Google Meet without them. I had many teachers express to me concerns of students using Google Meet inappropriately on a Meet they had created while they were not yet and/or no longer in the meeting. Fortunately, this issue seems to have been very quickly resolved by Google and I am excited to share two ways to better secure your Google Meet.

Through these two methods, students will no longer be able to join a Google Meet without their teacher present. While I have tested these two methods out in my own district and found them to work, there is a possibility that this may have not rolled out in all districts at this time.

Here are a couple of important things I noticed when testing this out today:

• Students will no longer be able to join before and/or stay after with only the following two ways. I haven’t seen success via Google Calendars at this time.
• Students will go to a “waiting room” if the teacher is not present in the meeting. Once the teacher joins, they will be given the “join” button.
• Students can enter a Google Meet for any teacher present in a Google Meet, whether they were the original host or not.
• Anyone entering from outside of the district domain will always see the button “Ask to Join” when wishing to enter a Google Meet.

#1: Nicknamed Google Meet

The first way to secure your Google Meet is by creating a nicknamed chat via www.meet.google.com. In this menu, you will create a nickname for your Google Meet and will give that nickname to your students to enter.

I highly suggest that you give students the nickname only and have them enter through the Google Meet main menu. From what we have tested, even if the students copy the URL at the top, they still wouldn’t be able to enter the Google Meet without you. However, it’s just easier to give them the nickname each time!

Interested in watching it in action? Watch this amazing video by Eric Curts from Control Alt Achieve on YouTube:

#2: Google Classroom Meet Link

The second way to secure your Google Meet is by using the Google Meet URL from your Google Classroom. This is a new feature that just rolled out today (at least in my district) and is an amazing feature for teachers! Now, Google Classroom has a Google Meet link that you can turn on in your settings menu.

In the same way as the nicknamed meet, this should prevent students from joining before and/or staying after in your Google Meet. We tested it out in our district and found it to be already rolled out and active.

Interested in watching it in action? Watch this helpful video by Scott Wagner on YouTube:

I have to say that I am incredibly excited to see this feature available in Google Meet. Personally, I have some concerns about the privacy and security of Zoom and have a lot of comfort using Google Meet since it already exists within our school district’s domain. Therefore, I am excited to see this added bit of security available for our teachers, if they choose to use it.

I would love to hear about your distance learning experience in relation to Google Meet and/or Zoom below, so please share with us in the comments!

As many schools are transitioning to distance learning over the next couple of weeks, I thought it would be helpful to make a tutorial for Google Hangouts Meet.  Google Hangouts Meet is an easy way to hold high-quality video meetings (for free!), collaborate and continue to build relationships with your students from a distance. Per Google, some of the key features of Google Hangouts Meet include:

• High-definition video and audio meetings with up to 250 participants
• Real-time captions powered by Google speech-to-text technology
• Easy access – just share a link and anyone can join with one click from desktop or mobile
• Easily record your meetings and it will automatically save in Google Drive
• Integration with Calendar for seamless scheduling and easy access to meeting details and calendar attachments from your Meet video call

Below, you will find step-by-step and video instructions on how to use Google Hangouts Meet in your school site and/or district. Click on the image below for access to this FREE document to share with your colleagues or make your own copy via the link below:

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If you have any questions about Google Hangouts Meet, please do not hesitate to reach out to me!

What tools are you using to communicate with your staff and students from a distance? Share in the comments below!