Google Meet reactions are here, only a year late
Google Meet has seen numerous improvements over the past several months as Google tries to make it a compelling replacement for Duo. The service introducedpicture-in-picture support to Chromelast year as a way to let you open an urgent document without missing visual cues during a meeting. It also added a few improvements forcrystal clear audioand aless noisy background. However, one useful feature that has been missing from Meet,despite being announced a year ago, is emoji reaction. Well, the wait is over now as Google starts to roll out the feature to Meet.
The new reactions allow you to drop emoji like a heart or a grin to show how you’re feeling during a video meeting with friends or colleagues. The emoji will appear in video tiles or in a column on the left side of your screen. You’ll also see a burst of emoji when multiple people send different reactions. It’s a handy tool to express dismay or approval during a meeting without having to disrupt the speaker, Google notes in ablog post.
You can share how you feel about your manager’s holiday announcements, for example, by selecting the smile icon in the control bar, where a row of nine reactions is tucked away, including a heart, thinking face, wow, clap, crying face, joy face, tada, thumbs-up, and thumbs-down. The list is not as extensive as what many of thebest messaging appsoffer, but they’re a step forward for Meet.
You can select a skin tone for your reaction, and then Meet applies this choice to all other reactions as long as they’re applicable. These reactions will initially be available on Google Meet on the web, Meet Hardware devices, and iOS. Android users, on the other hand, will have to wait a little longer. It’s now rolling out to all users with personal Google accounts, with Workspace customers set to receive it beginning January 16.
Emoji reactions are now commonplace in apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Google Messages. Zoom also has a similar feature, which sits on our list of thebest apps for video callingalongside Google Meet.
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