Google Meet getting new companion mode check-in feature

San Francisco, June 23

Tech giant Google has announced that it is rolling out a new companion mode check-in feature in the video communication service ‘Meet’.

“One of the challenges of joining a virtual meeting from a conference room, is that the people in the room are identified by the name of the conference room rather than as individuals,” the tech giant said in a Workspace Updates blogpost on Thursday.

However, with the new feature, if someone joins a meeting from a conference room, they can use companion mode on their personal device to check in to that specific room.

Rather than being represented in a meeting just by the conference room users are in, room check-in helps to make sure that everyone in the meeting can see their name and be aware of their presence.

Room check-in will be available by default, but admins can turn this feature off for specific Meet hardware devices or specific users.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, the tech giant was rolling out a new viewer mode in the video communication service, which allows users to select “Everyone is a viewer” when creating their Calendar invite.

When using Google Meet for large meetings, designating attendees as “viewers” helps reduce potential meeting distractions, like audio disruptions.