Google Meet adds new safety control for educators

Google previously enabled an anti-Zoom-bombing feature for Meet.

What you need to know

• Google Meet now lets teachers control who can share their screens or send group messages in a meeting.
• It’s being made available to G Suite for Education customers.
• For Google Chat, the company has now added read receipts support for one on one chats. It’ll be coming on or around October 5.

Google Meet has been taking off in the education sector, and the company is making small adjustments to the service as students head back to (virtual) school. Now, admins can control who can share their screens and who can send chat messages in a group video call. The company will make this feature set available only while using the web and not on the mobile app.

To control who can share screens, the meeting host, likely the teacher, will now have the option known as “Share their screen.” If turned off, only the host will be able to present and participants won’t see the option. Ditto for the new “Send chat messages” options. If turned off, only the host will be able to send messages, though other meeting participants will be able to view it.

It’ll roll out to G Suite for Education and G Suite Enterprise for Education customers only.

Google is also adding read receipts for Google Chat. Just like Messenger or WhatsApp or any other conventional messaging app, you’ll now be able to see when the second-party in a one-on-one chat has seen your message. Google notes the feature won’t work in Rooms or group chats. It’ll roll out to Google Chat users “no sooner than October 5.”

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