As Google goes through the unnecessarily complicated process of combining the two Meet and Duo apps, it’s now throwing a Zoom-copied feature into the mix. In an update on the Google Workspace blog, the company announced that Google Meet will soon give you the ability to mute yourself by holding down the spacebar and mute yourself again by releasing it.
If you use Zoom a lot, this feature might sound a lot like its live chat feature — and that’s because it’s essentially the same thing. Zoom has had the feature since at least 2020, and it’s useful whenever you want to join in during a meeting but don’t want to be muted for long.
Google says it will start rolling out its own version of the shortcut to all Workspace users on September 9, but it could take up to 15 days before you see it. Once it arrives, it won’t be on by default, so you’ll need to enable it from your Google Meet settings.
Confusingly, Google’s efforts to merge Duo and Meet have left us with the new Meet app (the one that combines Duo and Meet), the old Meet app (Original), and a Duo shortcut that leads to Meet. This is really something only Google could come up with. That said, I am pretty sure the new direct chat feature is coming to the new Google Meet app, but it’s not exactly clear yet whether it’s coming to the Meet (Original) app as Google will eventually discontinue it. On the edge reached out to Google to see if it could clear things up, but didn’t immediately hear back.
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