If you have to hold meetings on Google Meet, then the best way to do is in Grid view mode. Grid view mode in Google Meet is an amazing feature where you can see everybody at once. This is a great feature if you wish to figure out who is paying attention and who is not. Also it is very easy to enable Grid view in Google Meet especially if you’re a Windows PC or Mac OS user.
Google Suite is the leading choice for enterprise services for many companies. With a G-suite, many Google services such as Drive, Doc, Mail are accessible with enterprise-grade control and security. One of the key features it has is the well-known Google Hangouts, which lets to chat, connect, and conduct video calls within the domain. The Hangout is now re-engineered as the Google Meet. It comes with many more features such as a more secure connection, Higher quality video and screen sharing, etc.
What is the Grid view on Google Meet?
While using Google Meet, you cannot see each and every person on the chat at the same time. This is where the grid view comes in handy. The grid view forces to show the video from all the persons in the meeting over the screen.
It’s worth noting that the feature proves to be helpful for a small group says, 10 to 15 members or even 20, but will cause performance-related issues of you are having plenty of people in the meeting. The meet can permit up to 250 persons to participate. But showing all those members, the video feed will strain your system and bandwidth.
How to get the Grid view on Google Meet?
So there isn’t any app or setting to turn the feature on. But you can use the Google Chrome extension for the purpose. Since the extension works only on Chrome Web browser for PC, we should use the web version of Google Meet.
For PC (Windows, Linux, Mac)
Go to Chrome Web Store by clicking here, and add the extension to Chrome. The extension acts as a toggle switch. Now you can see the extension icon near the extension bar.
Now Open Google Meet and join a chat. You will find the grid icon on the chat, click on it, this will enable the grid view. Also, you can select Enable grid by default to load it automatically. You can also select listed options to turn on the specified options.
The grid view also has many other features like highlighting the speaking person and hiding persons without a video. You can also select to show yourself in the grid or not.
For Smartphone (Android)
There is no option to get the Grid view working on android as it uses an android app instead of a web browser. And android Chrome browser doesn’t support extensions. But there is a work-around for this. You have to install the Kiwi Web browser for Android and use google meet within Kiwi Browser. Kiwi browser is fast, and it supports chrome extensions. To use:
Go to the Play store and download Kiwi Browser. As you tap on three dots, you can see that the menu looks similar to chrome. But you can see the Extensions menu there.
[googleplay url=”https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiwibrowser.browser&hl=en_IN”]
Now you have to visit the chrome web store page and search the extensions “Google MeetGridView,” and Tap on Add to chrome, and this will download and install the extension to your browser.
Load the meeting web page. You have to log in, as this is a new browser.
Now Join a meeting, and you will find the Grid icon on the page now. Tap on it, and you will enable Grid view.
Conclusion
Although the extension is very useful, it is worth noting that it’s a third-party extension. There is no way of using the grid view in the mobile app for Android, for now. But we can expect developers at Google to add the feature later on through updates in the near future. Until then, you can use the Kiwi browser method to enjoy the grid view on your Android phone. Do not use the grid view on mobile if your meeting consists of many personals as this would put a heavy load on your phone, and the app might crash.
