Google Meet Introduces New Feature: Hosts Can Now Pin Up to Three Tiles for All Participants

Google Meet Participants Granted Option to Unpin Pinned Tiles from Their Screens.

Google Meet is getting a new feature that can be particularly helpful in large meetings. Meeting hosts or co-hosts can now pin up to three specific tiles for all the meeting participants. This will enable the participants to see the same people, presentations, or items highlighted on the screen, without having to do anything at their end. Earlier, while participants could pin up to three tiles, however, they would not be reflected on anyone else’s screen. All users will have the option to unpin the participants at their end.

Google Workspace announced the feature in a blog post on February 5, where it stated, “If you’re a meeting host or co-host, you can now pin up to three specific tiles for all meeting participants.” These three tiles can be participants, presentations, other items, or a combination of the three. Google says this feature will be helpful in large meetings or webinars where there are a lot of users attending, and focusing on the speaker might be difficult without pinning.

While earlier, users could pin participants and presentations at their end, there was no unified approach to this. In large meetings, this could lead to confusion and some users may struggle to find the right person to pin. With this new Google Meet feature, hosts and co-hosts can take over this task and help conduct a better-focused session.

Last month, the online conferencing platform unveiled three new personalization features for users, including a redesigned interface for visual effects. With Google Meet Backgrounds, participants now have access to a diverse range of options, including high-resolution photos, immersive images, and 360-degree backgrounds. The Filters feature allows users to enhance their appearance with accessories like hats or transform into animals and more. Additionally, the Appearance tab enables customization of lighting, framing, and video quality.

Google Meet also introduced Studio Lighting for web users, allowing them to enhance their frames with studio-quality lighting. The feature offers an Auto option for automatic application of the effect, as well as a Custom option for fine-tuning brightness, position, and color of the lighting. Furthermore, Studio Sound was introduced, leveraging AI to enhance audio quality during meetings.