Google Meet is the app of choice for many organizations and schools to hold video meetings and online classes. The app has made it very easy for its users to stay at home and still productively attend work meetings or online classes.
Still, one problem that haunts the meeting organizers, especially the teachers, hosting meetings on Google Meet is that students can join the meetings even when the meeting host is not present. But this problem is easily solvable with the Google Meet Waiting Room extension.
Google Meet Waiting Room Extension is a Chrome extension that when installed on the meeting participants’ browsers adds a Waiting Room to the Google Meet. The participants are then directed to the Waiting Room as long as the meeting Host does not join the meeting.
Before using the extension, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- The extension only works for accounts within the same domain. So, only organizations and schools can benefit from the extension.
- The meeting host should not have the extension installed on their browser to be able to use it. This means for online classes for schools, the teachers should not install the extension. Only the students need to install it.
- For it to make sense, the G Suite Admin should enforce the extension on all students or employees accounts as it only works when meeting participants have it installed in their Chrome browser. The students or employees cannot uninstall chrome extensions enforced by the G Suite admin, so your they won’t be able to uninstall it and will have to use the waiting room.
Installing the Google Meet Waiting Room Extension
If you are not the G Suite admin and are only installing the extension for yourself, then go to the Chrome web store and search for Google Meet Waiting Room or click here to directly hop there. Then, click on the ‘Add to Chrome’ button.
A dialog box will appear on the screen. Click on ‘Add extension’ to confirm the installation. The icon for the extension will appear on the right side of the Address Bar of your browser and it will become active when you are using Google Meet.
The premise for the extension is simple. If you are in the same organization as the host of the meeting, then you won’t be able to directly join the meeting as long as the host is not present. Instead, you will go to the Waiting Room.
Note: If you are not in the same organization as the meeting host, the extension won’t work for you and you will be stuck in the Waiting Room.
Whenever the host joins the meeting, you will then automatically be directed from the waiting room to the ‘Meeting Ready’ screen from where you can join the meeting. Then, click on ‘Join now’ to join the meeting.
If you are an admin for your organization, you can force install the extension for students or employees, so whenever they use Chrome on managed accounts or devices, they will have to use it. But be careful to not install it for teachers’ or managers’ accounts – in general, any people in your organization who have to host meetings. Or they won’t be able to start the meetings.
Also, meeting hosts need to note that even when all participants have the extension installed on their browsers, either remove everyone from the meeting or wait for everyone to leave before ending the meeting, or participants can stay in the meeting after you have left.
If you don’t want organization members or students to be able to join meetings on Google Meet without the meeting host present, get the Google Meet Waiting Room Extension for your organization. With the extension installed, meeting participants automatically go to the waiting room until such time as the host joins.
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