6 hidden Google Meet features you need to be using

Compared to something like Zoom, Google Meet does come across as a more simplistic video conferencing solution, much like every other Google service. However, to Google’s credit, it has managed to offer a very pleasant, consumer-friendly interface while also hiding a bunch of complex features for power users. I rely on Google Meet every single day for my work meetings, and that abundant time with the tool has allowed me to discover a few of my favorite features that I frequently use.

So, I thought, why not share them with you as well?

When presenting to a large group, like addressing an entire class or having a company-wide meeting, it is crucial that not everyone on the call has unrestricted access to the presentation tools to avoid things becoming chaotic. For instance, if someone accidentally shares their screen during an important lecture, a client call can quickly turn into an embarrassing moment. If it is not accidental — say, in a class full of playful students — you have a few options at hand.

Google Meet has built-in tools to give presentation rights and controls to the host only. While you can limit a chat buzzing with spam messages to avoid important messages getting buried under the noise, it also lets you mute a participant to handle disruptions without drawing a lot of attention.

If you have to address a large group or are occupied hosting a webinar or giving an interview, you’ll probably want help managing the call without taking your attention away from the task at hand. That’s easily solved by assigning someone else as a co-host, allowing them to moderate the session and take control of any nonsense without costing you your concentration.

Not just that, assigning a co-host gives you a second set of hands to manage live questions and chats from participants and track their responses. Just note that this feature may require a paid Workspace account to work for you.

Meetings are bland and boring, especially when there is just a single host going on and on for an hour straight. It is important to keep the audience engaged by collaborating with them in real time and making the session interactive. On Workspace plans, you can ask your participants questions to get real-time answers and even post polls to gauge sentiment on an ongoing topic, like the company’s market perception before an earnings call.

But for me personally, the biggest change that I use more frequently is the upgraded chat. The sidebar chat in Google Meet used to be this simplistic version that couldn’t even accommodate long text. Thankfully, Google has updated the chat with a bunch of features, and one of them directly addresses one of my biggest pain points. Whatever you chat about in Meet can now be accessed even after the call. It doesn’t vanish immediately afterward. Besides that, Google has also added a bunch of interactive tools and visual upgrades, allowing different media types like photos, videos, and links with proper previews, while longer text is now supported as well.

Purpose-built for modern hybrid meetings where a group is in a conference room while the rest of the team is scattered across the world, Companion mode comes in handy by letting you join the meeting while your audio and video stay off to avoid echo. This lets you interact with the entire team without feeling left out.

Say I am presenting something in the room from my laptop. I could also join the same meeting from my phone in Companion mode. The meeting wouldn’t use my phone’s camera or microphone, but I would then be able to monitor the chat, reactions, and questions without interrupting my presentation on the main display. I haven’t had the chance to use it too often, but whenever I did, it felt like something I should be using more.

If you thought that, in 2026, having your note-taker join the meeting a couple of minutes before you was cooler than having your assistant there to take down the minutes of the meeting, you are way behind the curve. In the world of AI, Gemini can take care of meeting notes without each participant bringing along their own note-taking app. Honestly, this should be the practice that is bullied out of the norm.

I’ve had Gemini silently take meeting notes, organize them properly with speaker labels, and give me a gist of the entire conversation within minutes in a file saved inside Google Drive. It can’t get much simpler than that, except for one problem: this Gemini note-taking feature is exclusive to Workspace subscribers. Even if you have an AI Pro or Ultra plan on your personal Google account, you’re out of luck.

If the pandemic taught us anything long-term, it is that classes and meetings can happen online. If teachers need to, they can also keep track of attendance with Google Meet. There is a built-in attendance tracking tool inside Google Meet, which is particularly useful for schools and workshops.

It can automatically log a participant’s presence, when they joined, when they left, and how long they stayed on the call. These metrics are just as critical for company training sessions as they are for students. Right after the meeting, the host gets an entire attendance report via email and in Google Drive.

These are some of the lesser-known or inadequately used Google Meet features that I came across and became a fan of. Have you got any of your own to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.