Google Meet hosts can keep participants' microphones, cameras off

Google Meet is rolling out a new feature that would let the meeting host to turn off participants' microphones or cameras.

The feature has been rolled for Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and Education Plus domains. It will launch to additional Google Workspace editions in the coming months.

"The meeting host is the only user in a meeting who can use the 'mute all' feature. Once all participants are muted, the meeting host cannot unmute them. However, users will be able to unmute themselves as needed. The mute all feature will only be available for hosts who are joining from a desktop browser, but will be launching on other platforms in the coming months," Google said in a blog post.

The microphone and camera lock feature will be off by default; hosts will have to turn it on during meetings if they want to use it.

Recently, Google Meet started rolling out live speech into translated captions. The live caption feature comes in handy especially for users with disabilities and also for those who want to keep track of what is being said in a virtual meeting word by word.

The feature will be useful in all-hands meetings and training programs with globally distributed teams, as well as educators communicating with students.