Google Meet hosts can keep participants mics and cameras off

Google Meet hosts will soon be able to turn off participants' microphones or cameras and prevent them from turning them back on, the company announced on a Workspace blog. The feature could be a useful way for hosts to prevent loud or noisy attendees from continuously interrupting meetings, even after they have already been muted.

The microphone and camera lock feature will be disabled by default; Hosts will need to turn it on during meetings if they want to use it. If your meeting has small group rooms, any audio and/or video blocking made in the main room will also apply to those rooms. However, the reverse is not true, which means that locks applied in individual group rooms will not apply to other small group rooms or the main room.

If you are using older versions of the apps on iOS and Android that do not support the feature, you will be kicked out of the meeting if the hosts activate the locks; If they are turned on before the meeting and you are in one of those older applications, you will not be able to join the meeting at all. Google says turning off the locks will allow people using older apps to join a meeting.

All Google Workspace customers will have access to the feature, which began rolling out for Rapid Release track users on Thursday. It will begin rolling out for those on the launch pad scheduled on November 1.