What you need to know
- Google is rolling out an update to Meet to improve knocks, a security feature to added earlier.
- It'll now let you bulk approve all knocks to speed up the process.
- Google also now lets change Meet backgrounds, just like Zoom.
Google keeps on improving Meet, its flagship video conferencing service. On Wednesday, the company announced an improvement to knocks — a feature that does exactly what it says. If each Meet meeting can be said to be held in a room, "knocks" is lightly tapping on the door and asking to be let in. It's just the Googly term for requesting to join a meeting, in short. Of course, as more than one user can ask for entry at a time, it can get annoying if you're holding a large group meeting.
Google is tweaking the interface for accepting requests in Meet so it's possible to accept multiple knocks. Here's how it'll look when it rolls out.
Google's Workspace team explained:
You can now accept all pending knocks in bulk in Google Meet. Admitting participants or students all at once helps limit interruptions during the video call. Note, only the meeting organizer can see or approve requests to join a meeting.
This update will be rolling out over the next two weeks. It'll be made available to all eligible Meet accounts, including both Google Workspace and personal Google accounts.
Alongside this change to knocks, Google also now lets you change your background in Meet. It works like Zoom or Teams, and it's a bit of a late entrant, but it's still better late than never. This is also expected to hit all devices within the next two weeks.
