Google Meet is Google‘s videoconferencing software, meant to be a competitive option to the services like Zoom and others. And now Google is making it available in one of its most popular apps.
On Tuesday, Google updated the official Gmail app for iOS (and Android) to add the ability to launch Google Meet directly from within the app. This feature change for Gmail comes just a little over a month since Google made Meet available for everyone. With this new integration, Meet is available directly from within Gmail, which means Meet users won’t need the standalone app on their device if they don’t want it.
When you update Gmail for iOS, you will see a brand new, and, as noted by The Verge today, a pretty big tab for the new Meet functionality. But fret not, folks who don’t want to use Meet but use Gmail: you can turn off the Meet integration right in the settings section of the Gmail app. Turning it off will remove the Meet tab at the bottom.
Ever since Google made Meet free for anyone with a Gmail account, the company has been pushing the service quite a bit. You can see the big blue buttons in new Google Calendar entries, for instance. And now, with the stock integration with Gmail for iOS and Android, a lot more people are going to see Meet on a regular basis. Google obviously hopes that turns into actual users, and maybe it will.
If you don’t see the new update just yet, or the Meet integration, the original report indicates it is rolling out over time. So keep an eye out.
Have you tried out Meet yet? If so, what do you think of it?