Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Introducing a new ultra-low latency viewer experience for in-domain live streaming in Google Meet

What’s changing 

We are introducing a new ultra-low latency viewing experience for video meetings that are streamed within an organisation. The new experience will be available to the first ten thousand viewers — all additional viewers will have the existing experience. This update is only available on the web, mobile users will be redirected to a web link, where they’ll have the existing livestream experience. 


With this release, you’ll notice several functional and quality improvements, such as: A virtually lag-free streaming experience. 
  • Significantly increased speaker video resolution (up to 720p per speaker). 
  • Shared content and presentations shown up to 2880x1800. 
  • Up to two speaker video feeds can be shown side by side together with presented material. 
  • A new layout engine supports any window aspect with dynamic resolution management. 
  • Improved automatic camera cuts that focus on the most relevant speakers & content. 
  • Audience interaction through emoji reactions, polls and Q&A. Support for captions and translated captions is coming in a later update.


Additional details

These updates will be available for Google Meet on web and Android devices. We plan to introduce support for Meet mobile apps by the end of 2023, which will introduce an immersive, full-screen live streaming experience for both iOS and Android devices.  We’ll share an update on the blog when that becomes available.


Getting started

  • Admins: Visit our Help Center for more information turning live streaming on or off for Meet.
  • End users: When enabled by your admin, use the Help Center to learn more about live streaming a video meeting. 
    • Viewers: You can join streams as before. Reactions, polls and live Q&A work like in a regular Meet video meeting.
    • Live stream hosts: Live streams are scheduled and managed just like before. Reactions, polls and live Q&A are integrated with the Meet call and managed like usual. Automatic camera cuts are triggered by speaker activity without any host action required.

Rollout pace

Note: For some customers, these changes may roll out at a slower rate — this means some customers may not receive this update until Q4 2023, with the latest being December 2023.


Availability

  • Live streaming is available for Google Workspace Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Essentials Plus, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Education Plus customers.

  • Live streamed meetings can be viewed by Google Workspace Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus,  Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning. Upgrade, Education Plus, Essentials Starter, and Essentials users.
  • Not available to users with personal Google accounts.

Resources