Google Meet — Top 3 Issues
We rely on Google Meet in house for our video chats and online screen sharing, and our clients, mostly healthcare organizations, use Google Meet for telehealth visits — video interactions between healthcare providers and patients.
Typically we set up a single button on our client’s website per each provider or per each virtual waiting room, and patients can start a telehealth visit at the time of their appointment with one press of this button on their doctor’s website (no links to send to patients).
While healthcare providers need to log in using their individual physical security key in addition to entering their office user ID and password (multi-factor authentication helps ensure that their telehealth visits are secure), their patients only need to press a button and enter their name so that their provider can recognize and admit them (thus no need for patients to know or remember user IDs or passwords).
When it works, Google Meet is great. Participants can use their computer or a mobile device. On a computer they need an Internet browser, a microphone, a webcam, speakers and a reliable Internet connection.
Problems With Speakers Or Microphone
The problems arise when Google Meet ends up getting self-configured with the wrong microphone or wrong set of speakers. Unfortunately this issue frequently comes up both for Windows and Mac users, though more often for Mac users for some reason — so much so that we had to record a video tutorial for Mac users on how to troubleshoot their settings and make necessary adjustments.
The same user may have a great experience one day and struggle to use Google Meet the next day, having to try different browsers, and tinkering with the Google Meet settings.
When we attempt to troubleshoot, at times we find that users can play YouTube videos and hear sound on their computer speakers totally fine, while being unable to hear other participants on Google Meet.
Even for computer savvy users, it takes a bit of time and effort to figure out what is wrong and to switch their Google Meet settings to correct devices.
To select another speaker or microphone, a user needs to
- Click on the three dots in the bottom right corner of their Google Meet window
- Scroll down all the way to the last item on the menu list and click on the Settings icon
- Select the Microphone and/or Speakers that are needed
This may require at least 3–4 clicks or more to get to the point when all participants can hear each other and proceed with their video chat.
Recommendation:
It would be easier and more convenient to display settings for microphone and speakers right on the Google Meet task bar, just like it is done in the Google Voice app (there is an icon to change audio settings on the main page) so that a user could see and change the settings without having to go through multiple clicks and having to open different menus.
Another option is to release native Windows and MacOS apps to allow users to pro-actively configure proper devices in their app to avoid random changes in speaker or mic settings from day to day.
Difficult to Host Previously Created Meetings on a Mobile Device
A Google Meeting can be created with a nickname, e.g., telehealth1. The problem arises when the host can not remember what nickname was used to set up that meeting. When hosting a Google Meet Session on a Mobile Device, it is easier to enter the meeting nickname, rather than having to copy and enter the 10-digit code, for example, ygo-vkjx-xnw. Unfortunately, to date we have not been able to figure out how a host can find out the original nickname that was entered when a meeting was created.
It would be better if a user could browse through the list of meeting nicknames previously created in their organization and select one from the list to host a desired pre-configured Google Meet session.
One work-around is to set up recurring calendar events, such as WaitingRoom1 from 6:00AM to 6:00AM or WaitingRoom2 from 6:01AM to 6:01AM, using the respective Google Meet links, and configure these calendar events to repeat daily with notifications disabled. Then a host would be able to start a meeting by clicking on the desired item.
Recommendation:
Hosting meetings on mobile devices would be so much easier if one more ‘Favorites’ tabs could be added to the Google Meet app to maintain pre-selected meetings, so that a host could
- add frequently used meetings as their ‘Favorites’ showing original nicknames, and
- start a meeting by clicking on the item with the desired nickname.
Lack of a Split Screen
It’s quite common for a user to take notes or work with another app or online service when hosting or participating in an online video meeting. For example, a user may take notes in a Google Doc, or work with an EHR system during the telehealth visit.
One work around is to set up an external monitor or use an iPad or Android tablet as a second display. Another work around is to use the Vivaldi browser, open two tabs, use one tab for Google Meet and use the second tab for taking notes or accessing another online service, and then use the split button (at the bottom of the browser footer) to share the screen between the two tabs.
Recommendation:
It would be more convenient if a desktop Google Meet app had a built-in split screen, so that a user could use a part of the screen for the video meeting and another part of the screen for taking notes or using other applications.
