Google Meet

Overview

Google Meet launched in its current form in 2017 as Hangouts Meet, a business-focused video conferencing product built to compete with Zoom and Microsoft Teams, later renamed simply Google Meet in 2020. It absorbed and eventually replaced Google’s older, more consumer-oriented Hangouts product, consolidating Google’s video calling efforts into a single browser-based service that works without installing a separate desktop application, joined directly from a browser tab or the Gmail/Calendar sidebar.

Meet is closed source and runs entirely on Google’s infrastructure, with meetings created and joined through a Google account (or, for some meetings, a guest link without an account). It’s bundled into every Google Workspace plan and also available as a limited free consumer product tied to a personal Google account, with paid Workspace tiers unlocking longer meeting durations, larger participant caps, recording, and administrative controls. Deep integration with Google Calendar, Gmail, and Google Docs lets meetings be scheduled, joined, and have automatically generated notes (via Gemini) without leaving Google’s ecosystem.

Key Features

• Browser-based — Joins directly from a browser tab with no required desktop app install
• Google Workspace integration — One-click scheduling and joining from Calendar and Gmail
• Live captions and translation — Real-time captioning, with translated captions on some plans
• Gemini meeting notes — AI-generated meeting summaries and note-taking (paid Workspace add-on)
• Screen sharing and Q&A — Standard screen sharing, polls, and Q&A tools for larger meetings
• Noise cancellation — Built-in background noise suppression

Use Cases

• Google Workspace teams — Scheduling and joining meetings directly from Calendar and Gmail
• Ad hoc video calls — Quick browser-based calls without requiring participants to install software
• Education — Classroom video sessions integrated with Google Classroom
• Webinars and larger meetings — Higher participant caps and streaming on higher Workspace tiers

Who It’s For

Google Meet is aimed at individuals and organizations already using Gmail or Google Workspace who want video conferencing integrated directly into their existing calendar and email workflow. It’s distributed on a freemium model with a limited free tier tied to a personal Google account, and paid Workspace plans for longer meetings, larger participant limits, and administrative features; all data and infrastructure remain on Google’s servers with no self-hosting option.