Josh Hendrickson
Google’s efforts to improve Meet continue to pay off. Recently it added a tiled layout so you could see up to 16 participates simultaneously. But, if someone started presenting their desktop, you’d lose the tile layout option. Now, you can see a presentation and the tiled layout together.
When you use the two views, the presentation takes up most of the screen in a large rectangular section. The active participants get shunted to smaller boxes at the bottom of the screen, in a dock-like layout. Google says the hope is to make Meet feel more like an in-person meeting.
Alongside the new layout option, Google is adding a welcome change. Until now, you had to turn on the tiled layout every time you started a conference call. But now it will remember the layout you previously chose and use it in the future. That will hold in place as your preference until you select a new layout.
Currently, Google Meet is free for everyone to use (though it’ll eventually go back to an Enterprise option). If you’re taking advantage of open access, you’re sure to appreciate the new changes.
