Its privacy policy indicates that the only type of data collected is non-personal, system-oriented info that's used for internal analysis. On the permissions front, the software does require access to the Meet website, as you'd expect. Just note that everyone in your meeting will need to have the extension installed in order for it to work optimally - since anyone who doesn't have it in place won't see any reactions and won't be able to add in their own, either. Nod Reactions has a few other options, including the ability to change the color of your avatar to a variety of more human-like hues and a super-handy switch to enable actual notifications of any reaction activity in the room so you won't miss a thing. (I'm still hoping for one of the single-finger variety, myself, but that might be a touch too zesty for professional purposes.) JR or you can pick from a variety of other useful gestures, with even more promised to be on the way soon. (Wasn't I looking especially handsome on this day?) Any reaction you click gets shown to everyone else in the meeting as a pop-up in the lower-left corner of the screen.Ĭlick the hand-raise icon, and Nod Reactions will place an indicator in the bottom-left corner of everyone's screen. Speaking of too much speaking, how many times have you been in a virtual meeting and wished you could voice your stance on something without having to actually use your voice? Being able to give a thumbs-up, a nod, or a wave without needing to take yourself off mute - and in a way everyone is still sure to notice - goes a long way toward reducing the noise in a videoconference and consequently increasing the sanity of its participants.Īnd that's exactly what the Nod Reactions for Google Meet extension is designed to do: It adds a perfectly sensible panel into the upper-left corner of your Meet screen with a series of single-click reactions. Google Meet add-on #2: The silent reaction station Its code is open source and available for anyone to peruse, and its developers are incredibly clear about the fact that the software doesn't store or do anything with any data it encounters. That means you can sit comfortably and stare blankly ahead without having to worry about your mute status - and then, whenever you want to talk, you can just press that pretty little pinky of yours down onto your spacebar and hold it down until you're done.Īs for permissions, the Google Meet Push to Talk extension requires you to grant it access only to the Google Meet website. It does one thing and does it well: It mutes your mic in Meet by default and then unmutes it whenever you hold your spacebar down. For a more logical and dodo-brain-resistant meeting experience, download the dead-simple Google Meet Push to Talk extension. (That schlub is typically me.) On the flip side, some doofus will sooner or later try to start talking, only to realize midway through his monologue that he forgot to unmute himself and thus is inadvertently putting on a complex pantomime performance for his colleagues. Invariably, some schlub will forget to mute his mic and then start crackling papers or rambling on about pasta at exactly the wrong time. Managing muting is without a doubt the most annoying part of a virtual meeting. The Meet mobile apps don't support these sorts of extensions as of yet.) Google Meet add-on #1: The smarter mute setup (Note that these add-ons currently work only in Meet's web interface, when accessed via Chrome. They're all completely free to use - and they'll all make an immediate difference in your distance-based discussions. I've tried out tons of Google Meet add-ons and narrowed the list of must-have additions down to three simple but powerful tools. And while its main interface may be relatively sparse, the right set of add-ons can go a long way in enhancing your meeting environment and making your Meet pow-wows even more pleasant and productive for everyone. What we can say, though, is this: Meet is a great way to talk face to face with anywhere from two to 250 people, if you're in a team-oriented G Suite setup - or up to a hundred people if you're using a regular, individual Google account. And I'm not entirely convinced we won't see even more muddled messaging in this area as the months wear on. Now, is it strictly for teams or also for regular consumer use? When you should use it as opposed to Duo, Google's increasingly overlapping other video chat service? I'm not sure that anyone, least of all Google, can fully answer those questions at the moment. Got Meet? Google's recently rebranded videoconferencing service may be a confusing mess when it comes to its purpose and positioning, but it sure is simple and effective - not to mention secure - to use.
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