If your company uses Google’s suite of office apps, you’re probably familiar with Google Meet, the vendor’s web-based videoconferencing app. Meet is included with paid Google Workspace plans, and a free version with fewer features is available to anyone with a Google account, such as a Gmail address.
The Chrome Web Store offers a slew of extensions you can install to your Chrome browser that enhance Meet in some way. Many of these extensions are aimed at adding powerful meeting management features available only with paid Workspace plans — such as breakout rooms, meeting access automation, attendance lists, and meeting transcriptions — to the free version of Meet.
But even Workspace users can get more out of Meet by installing some helpful Chrome extensions. The following extensions enhance the Meet interface or add new tools to it. Most can be used for free, although some require that you pay to use their more sophisticated features.
If you need help getting started with Meet, see our Google Meet cheat sheet.
Meet tools and interface tweaks
These extensions improve the Meet user experience and help you manage your meetings.
Call Timer: Track how long your meeting runs
Starting a video meeting on time is important — and so is ending it on time. Install this timer tool to track how long your meeting (or a segment of your meeting) is running.
Seeing the timer counting down will remind you to keep the meeting on track and encourage others to move things along. You can enter the amount of time that you want the timer to count down from, start it, and reset it. If you reposition the timer on your Google Meet screen, Call Timer will remember your preferred placement the next time you start a Google Meet session.
Howard Wen / IDG
Call Timer’s countdown timer helps you keep your meetings on track. (Click image to enlarge it.)
Google Meet Volume Control: Set the same volume for all meeting attendees
We’ve all had the uncomfortable experience of being on a video call where one person is way too loud while others are barely audible. This app lets you set the volume coming from all the people in your meeting through one control. This affects the volume level on your device and doesn’t control each person’s volume on their own PC or device. After you’ve installed the extension, click its icon when you are in a meeting to open a volume slider that you can adjust.
MeetApps: Access all your scheduled Google Meet meetings from one place
Normally when you want to access a Google Meet meeting that you’ve scheduled, you look it up on your Google Calendar, email, or other source that provides the link to it. The MeetApps extension surfaces your Google Calendar with upcoming Google Meet meetings on it.
When you click the MeetApps icon on the Chrome browser toolbar, it opens a panel listing all your scheduled meetings. You can then conveniently click a listed meeting on it. This extension also looks for and lists…
2024-03-22 15:00:03
Original from www.computerworld.com