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Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

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Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#51

Post by mulderc »

nevir wrote: post #5

Meet, to me, is the perfect balance of functionality and simplicity (as an end user). And features like this only make that more apparent. Zoom and Teams always frustrate me, even though they're what I use far more often. It's too bad that video conferencing is largely a game of who has the most boxes checked - IT admins and A/V folk are the ones that need to be convinced, and Meet just doesn't ...meet... their needs

I have always had way more issues with meet than zoom. Guessing it is something about browser compatibility but participants regularly have issues with mics and cameras that I don’t see with zoom.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#52

Post by andai »

Sounds imprrssive, but also overengineered? Don't headphones solve the same problem?

Though I guess in a hybrid meeting they'd make it harder to hear the people in the room. (But you'd hear them through the laptop, normally? I guess there would be an uncanny delay...)

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#53

Post by stackskipton »

benterix wrote: post #36
indymike wrote: post #24

I just exited my startup and now work for a much bigger company. I'm going from a Google-based productivity stack to a Microsoft one, and so far Teams is the worst and best change. Google Meet was fantastic for "just working" especially for less sophisticated meeting guests. The only time Meet didn't work is when corporate IT departments at customers actively blocked Meet so their minions used the "approved meeting s…

> As far as Teams vs. Meet, it seems like Teams is great when you are working with people that have climbed it's learning curve. Can you give one example?

I can give several. Most of them are not Meet specific but how Meets integrates with rest of Google Products. This is actually overall massive problem with Google Workspaces in general IMO.

1) You can call someone in Teams. Sure, Google Chat has "Start Meeting now" but it's very passive. I know some will see this as negative but ringing has massive advantages around UX.

2) Chat, Teams will persist chat after meeting ends. In fact, depending on how you hold the meeting, it might dump the contents into chat channel so it's preserved in more open manner.

3) You can have visible meetings. You can start a meeting in a Teams chat channel so everyone can see the meeting is going on. It creates that in the office feeling of two people working on a whiteboard nearby that if topic interests you, you can join in.

4) Sharing Documents, Add Word Document to meeting, everyone is granted permissions. Done.

The fact so many Google Workspaces companies have Slack is just frustrating. You have these two products that barely talk.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#54

Post by pquki4 »

nradov wrote: post #21
nevir wrote: post #5

Meet, to me, is the perfect balance of functionality and simplicity (as an end user). And features like this only make that more apparent. Zoom and Teams always frustrate me, even though they're what I use far more often. It's too bad that video conferencing is largely a game of who has the most boxes checked - IT admins and A/V folk are the ones that need to be convinced, and Meet just doesn't ...meet... their needs

This isn't an area where simplicity wins. Zoom is targeted more towards professional use whereas Meet is more for casual or social use. It doesn't really support multiple displays, like I can't watch screen sharing on one display while moving the chat and video windows off to another display. Scaling options for screen sharing are inadequate and it doesn't even support real full screen display. Meet lacks advanced au…

I think because Meet is fully browser based, some of the features like sharing audio with screen are only available via chrome or chromium based browsers -- definitely not on Firefox in my own testing. I don't know the exact reason for that, but it's kind of sad.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#55

Post by unixhero »

Rastonbury wrote: post #37
pachico wrote: post #26

GitLab offers a nice course about transitioning to remote work. One of the items in their guidelines about online meeting is not having hybrid meetings. This is, all those attending must attend from their own device rather than the meeting room one (see Jabra) precisely for the reasons this feature tries to address.

It gets complicated when half a team is in the office taking the same call from their desks, easier for Gitlab because they are full remote

This does not complicate matters.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#56

Post by buro9 »

samcheng wrote: post #46
buro9 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Meet did "autorecord" combined with "autoshare recording with recipients" (specifically including Google Group recipients)... then it would be perfect. As it is, we're gradually shifting more things to Zoom where that's either part basic functionality, or part easy to automate as things like Zapier are well integrated into the API. We only use Meet for team meetings now, and we did use Gong.io to solve the above..…

Hmm. We natively record and transcribe many meetings via Meet. Maybe it’s a function of the plan we’re on? I wouldn’t want “autorecord” though - it’s better for culture and rapport to not feel like every conversation is “on the record.”

Well I'd hope that's a property of a specific meeting and not all meetings, but team weeklies where those not present want to catch up, and the recording is only going to those regular attendees (members of a specific Google Group)... sure, that's a thing we would like to have.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#57

Post by unixhero »

djtango wrote: post #41
benterix wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rules are meant to be broken. I've participated in many meetings where, for one reason or another, some participants couldn't join in person. Making it easier - for them and for us - is a technical challenge, and not something to be decided by an arbitrary rule.

Remote is extreme and is still not the norm. It is easier to baseline on things optimised for remote then relax than try to shoehorn in person into remote which is then doomed to fail. I worked for a company that was headquartered in London and had satellite offices in Spain and Germany. After we all went remote during the pandemic the EU offices said they felt so much more engaged with the rest of the company becaus…

It was for 2.5-3 entire years

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#58

Post by jerlam »

haiku2077 wrote: post #16
simonbarker87 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like Zoom does the best job of the corporate offerings. Google Meet feels like the worst and most stifling. I was talking to someone who specialises in corporate communication at a conference last week and she confirmed my feeling above as well. Her thing is “talking over each other is a key part of human interaction and forcing one at a time is stifling and unnatural”

I just don't understand how this can work perfectly in Discord while working so badly in Zoom.

They seem to be designed differently. The business ones try to replicate a business meeting where someone talks at the front of the room, shows slides, and prompts for questions. Discord is more like a LAN party.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#59

Post by mattlondon »

andai wrote: post #52

Sounds imprrssive, but also overengineered? Don't headphones solve the same problem? Though I guess in a hybrid meeting they'd make it harder to hear the people in the room. (But you'd hear them through the laptop, normally? I guess there would be an uncanny delay...)

No because your voice is not constrained to headphones.

Re: Google Meet rolls out multi-device adaptive audio merging

#60

Post by pquki4 »

djtango wrote: post #41
benterix wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rules are meant to be broken. I've participated in many meetings where, for one reason or another, some participants couldn't join in person. Making it easier - for them and for us - is a technical challenge, and not something to be decided by an arbitrary rule.

Remote is extreme and is still not the norm. It is easier to baseline on things optimised for remote then relax than try to shoehorn in person into remote which is then doomed to fail. I worked for a company that was headquartered in London and had satellite offices in Spain and Germany. After we all went remote during the pandemic the EU offices said they felt so much more engaged with the rest of the company becaus…

"doomed to fail"

Its definitely doomed to fail if CEOs want you to think it's doomed.

Your comment is handwavy with words like "feel" and "bad habits". There are real issues with remote work, but there are also ways to mitigate the downsides of it. It's easier for some people to just dismiss the idea entirely and pretend that in-office work is the better alternative without any problems. I have definitely seen that happen in my company and here.

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