What’s changing
We’re adding new settings in the Admin console that allow admins to set policies for who can join video calls in their organization, and whether users from their organization can join video calls from other organizations.
Important note: There will be no changes to your current Google Meet experience with this launch of these new settings — your experience will only change if your admin changes the current setting.
- Admins now have three settings to control which types of meetings users from their organization can join:
Meetings created by someone in your organization
- Meetings created by any other Google Workspace customer
- All meetings, including meetings created with personal Google accounts
Background: By default, K-12 Google Workspace for Education users can attend meetings organized by any other Google Workspace user. For example, a K-12 Google Workspace for Education user could join an extracurricular meeting hosted by another school’s organization. This also means that by default, K-12 Google Workspace for Education users cannot join meetings organized by a personal Google Account. (Higher education users’ default is to be able to join any meetings, including those created with personal Google accounts.) For all other (non Edu) Google Workspace users the default is set to allow users to attend any meeting, including those created with personal Google accounts.
In addition, Admins now also have three options to control who can join meetings created by users in their organization:
- Only users from your organization or users dialing in using a phone
- Users signed in with a Google account or dialing in using a phone
- All users, including those not signed in with a Google account
For Google Workspace for Education users, the default is set to allow only users signed into a Google account or dialing in using a phone. This means that by default, signed-out users cannot join Education meetings. For Education customers who have already manually chosen to allow signed-out users to join their meetings, their default setting will be all users, including those not signed in with a personal Google account.
All other Google Workspace users: the default is set to allow all users, including those not signed in with a personal Google account, to join a meeting.
Who’s impacted
Admins and end users
Why it’s important
Giving admins the ability to control what meetings their users can join with their Google Workspace accounts and who can join their users meetings will help ensure more secure meetings. It will also facilitate things like student-to-student connections across districts, professional development opportunities for educators, and external speakers visiting a class.
Getting started
- Admins: There will be no changes to meeting experiences in your organization unless you update these settings. Visit the Help Center to learn more about Google Meet settings for admins.
- Note: The admin settings cannot be overridden by meeting organizers.
- End users: There is no end user action required. Visit the Help Center to learn more about joining a meeting.
Rollout pace
Availability
- Available to all Google Workspace and Google Workspace for Education customers, as well as G Suite Basic and Business customers.
- Users with personal Google Accounts may be impacted by these settings. Depending on the Admin settings, they may not be able to join meetings organized by Google Workspace users and vice versa.
Resources
