Video conferencing tools have quickly become an essential part of the virtual classroom.
I have been answered the “Zoom vs. Google Meet” question dozens of times over the past few weeks.
Honestly, I don’t really think it matters any more than picking Coke over Pepsi or Ford over Chevy.
When used correctly, with the proper security settings in place, both Zoom and Meet are very capable video conferencing tools.
Here’s the thing… if you teach in a G Suite for Education school and you are using Chromebooks and Google Classroom…why wouldn’t you use Google Meet?
Unfortunately, one of the big selling points of Zoom are the “fancy” features that are missing from Google Meet:
- Seeing ALL of your students at the same time
- Audience reactions
- Mute-all
These missing features make Google Meet feel a bit less polished and capable than Zoom…until now!
There is a growing list of Chrome extensions that can enhance your Google Meet experience and add “Zoom-like” elements!
Let’s take a look at some of my favorites!
🎦 Check out my YouTube video review of these 5 extensions
Grid View for Google Meet
Grid view makes it possible to see all of your students on-screen at one time. I have successfully used Grid view in a session with more than 200 participants and it works great!
Keep in mind that when Grid View is active, all participant’s screens are shown at the same time. If you are presenting something for your students, they should turn Grid view OFF so that your screen is larger.
Note: Google recently added “tiled view” to Google Meet which will display up to 16 participants at a time. If you have more than 16 students in a video chat, you should install Grid View.
⤵️ Click to install the Grid View Chrome Extension
Nod reactions for Google Meet
The Nod Chrome extension adds in Facebook-like reactions. Students can clap, raise their hand, or LOL during your session without interrupting the speaker.
The Nod extension MUST be installed before you will see reactions from others in the call.
⤵️ Click to install the Nod Chrome Extension
Dualless window splitter
Use Dualless to split your screen into two windows so that you can screen share AND monitor your class at the same time.
If you wan to share your screen and keep track of the Meet chat and video windows you need to organize your tabs into two windows – one that contains the websites you want to share and another that lets you view the Google Meet.
If you have dual monitors you this is pretty easy. But if you are “dual-less”, you can use this handy Chrome Extension!
⤵️ Click to install the Dualless Chrome Extension
Meet Attendance
This extension will record a list of everyone who is present in a live session. Attendance information is stored in a Google Sheet which is only accessible by the meeting creator.
Only the teacher needs to have this extension installed.
While it does work, the Meet attendance interface is a bit funky. You’ll want to spend some time playing with it to understand how it works.
⤵️ Click to install the Meet Attendance Chrome Extension
Push to Talk
This is a great extension for young students who struggle to push the mute/unmute button. When this extension is installed, you must press the space bar to talk. Let go of the space bar and your mic is muted again.
While it’s not perfect, this extension helps address the lack of a “mute all” button on Meet.
Tip: Once students join your Meet call, have the manually mute their mic. This is required before the push-to-talk extension will work. From this point forward they can use the spacebar to control their microphone.
⤵️ Click to install the Push to Talk Chrome Extension
BONUS: Highlight mouse cursor
It can be difficult for participants to see and track your mouse cursor when you are sharing during a Meet session. Enable to the “highlight mouse cursor” accessibility feature on your Chromebook to add a red circle around your mouse. This makes it much easier to follow your virtual demonstration.
Read this post for detailed instructions on how to enable accesibility features on your Chromebook.
Still Missing from Meet
While the extensions above do fill in some missing Meet features, there are a few more that I don’t have solutions for:
- Mute all – The meeting creator should be able to mute all participants with a single click. I haven’t found any magic solutions to make it easy to mute everyone in a Meet session, although Push to talk helps.
- Change background – this is the Zoom feature that everyone loves. There is a Chrome extension that claims to be able to do this, but it is super buggy and I can’t recommend it.
- Breakout rooms – While Meet doesn’t officially support breakout rooms, there are some hacks you try to make it work. While it will work, this solution is too complicated to earn my recommendation.
If you have solutions to any of these missing features please let me know!
Do you have Chromebooks in your Classroom?
Download a free chapter of my book, The Chromebook Classroom!
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14 comments. Leave new
Great post, however, the Dualless window splitter link has Nod reactions link instead.
Just FYI
These are great! Thank you for researching these. My district uses Google Meet for department meetings. We use Zoom or Schoology Conferences for student conferences because our students do not receive Gmail accounts.
Creator or host control would be nice. Needs a type of “remove participant” button for the host.
That feature is already available. The creator of the meeting can remove participants.
THANK YOU! FINALLY some instructions that specify to manually mute the mic when in Google Meet. Been looking for an hour to verify. Haven’t been in a meeting yet where I could experiment both ways without it disrupting the meeting.
Snap camera has some green screen capabilities as well as typical snap chat visuals. It can be a little glitchy on the animated visuals but the static ones like backgrounds weem to work fine.
Hello Anthony! Unfortunately, Snap Camera doesn’t work on a Chromebook! 😢
Show us Chromebook users some love and I am happy to add Snap Camera to this list!
Absolutely fantastic list THANK YOU
Just to let you know the link for duallist is not the right one!
Another useful and simple extension for Google meet is Google Meet Party Button – https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-meet-party-button/mhkffmllohoiiflajcdmpkfdioknejhb?utm_source=youtube It allows you to share your joy during the meeting without interrupting the speaker
These are awesome! Thank you! I’ve been looking unsuccessfully to find: is there a way to chat privately with students during a Google Meet class? So, if I’m asking a question to the class and I want to poll the class, is there a way that they can quickly and easily send me a message that the rest of the class can’t see? Looking for a solution so that there is a.) less fear of being seen giving a wrong answer in the chat and b.) not a few students giving the answer only for the rest of the class to copy it in the chat.
Unfortunately no. Google Meet doesn’t offer a private message option.
I would post a discussion question in Google Classroom and have students leave their reflection there.
You could also look at using Pear Deck to present a live lesson to students. They would submit their responses in Pear Deck which does have a private option.
When trying Dualless, I noticed two things. First-when I click present, I no longer see my students. I just see the message that I am sharing my screen. Second, it showed the split screen for the other participant as well. What was I doing wrong?
You will want to set up Dualless BEFORE you click the present button.
When you do click present, select the window option so that you can select the window that has your presentation.
I recommend that you also install Grid View so that you can continue to see your students in the Meet window while you present.
14 comments. Leave new
Thank you very much for this!
Great post, however, the Dualless window splitter link has Nod reactions link instead.
Just FYI
These are great! Thank you for researching these. My district uses Google Meet for department meetings. We use Zoom or Schoology Conferences for student conferences because our students do not receive Gmail accounts.
Creator or host control would be nice. Needs a type of “remove participant” button for the host.
That feature is already available. The creator of the meeting can remove participants.
THANK YOU! FINALLY some instructions that specify to manually mute the mic when in Google Meet. Been looking for an hour to verify. Haven’t been in a meeting yet where I could experiment both ways without it disrupting the meeting.
Snap camera has some green screen capabilities as well as typical snap chat visuals. It can be a little glitchy on the animated visuals but the static ones like backgrounds weem to work fine.
Hello Anthony! Unfortunately, Snap Camera doesn’t work on a Chromebook! 😢
Show us Chromebook users some love and I am happy to add Snap Camera to this list!
Absolutely fantastic list THANK YOU
Just to let you know the link for duallist is not the right one!
Another useful and simple extension for Google meet is Google Meet Party Button – https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-meet-party-button/mhkffmllohoiiflajcdmpkfdioknejhb?utm_source=youtube It allows you to share your joy during the meeting without interrupting the speaker
These are awesome! Thank you! I’ve been looking unsuccessfully to find: is there a way to chat privately with students during a Google Meet class? So, if I’m asking a question to the class and I want to poll the class, is there a way that they can quickly and easily send me a message that the rest of the class can’t see? Looking for a solution so that there is a.) less fear of being seen giving a wrong answer in the chat and b.) not a few students giving the answer only for the rest of the class to copy it in the chat.
Unfortunately no. Google Meet doesn’t offer a private message option.
I would post a discussion question in Google Classroom and have students leave their reflection there.
You could also look at using Pear Deck to present a live lesson to students. They would submit their responses in Pear Deck which does have a private option.
When trying Dualless, I noticed two things. First-when I click present, I no longer see my students. I just see the message that I am sharing my screen. Second, it showed the split screen for the other participant as well. What was I doing wrong?
You will want to set up Dualless BEFORE you click the present button.
When you do click present, select the window option so that you can select the window that has your presentation.
I recommend that you also install Grid View so that you can continue to see your students in the Meet window while you present.