Google Inc. has quietly released a new enterprise conferencing platform that appears designed to compete with the likes of Skype for Business and Slack.
Launched on March 1 with little fanfare and an iOS app that was pulled from stores after a TechCrunch report, Google Meet appears to be the company’s latest addition to its enterprise software line, G-Suite, and designed to facilitate HD video meetings.
While the company has yet to officially announce the product, its website is currently live and allows users to enter a meeting code or join a video call scheduled using the Gmail calendar, though for now the calls themselves appear to be conducted using Hangouts, Google’s current social networking platform. It does not presently appear possible to schedule a new call from the Meet website itself.
According to TechCrunch, the iOS version of Meet included several other features aimed at making video calls easier to access on the go, including dial-in numbers, clickable links, and Gmail and Calendar integration for G-Suite users.
The app’s main screen includes a list of scheduled meetings, alongside details such as time, location, subject, and attendees. Users can click a green “join” button to attend meetings on their phone, with the interface including buttons that let users mute their call or switch video off.
Larger conferences include a main window at the top where users can watch whomever is speaking, followed by a list of participants’ screens, names, and email addresses. According to TechCrunch, dial-in numbers are available only to G-Suite Enterprise Edition users thus far.
Though Hangouts is limited to 10 people, Meet apparently supports video meetings with up to 30 participants.
Meet cannot presently be accessed on Android phones, nor has it replaced Hangouts in the G-Suite line of products as of this writing.
Though Meet was initially released as an iOS app, Google appears to have pulled it from the App Store shortly after the TechCrunch article was published, and the company did not respond to the publisher’s requests for comment.
