Google Meet now allows hosts to mute other participants: Here's how you can do it

Popular video-conferencing platform Google Meet has introduced a new Audio Video Lock feature that will allow hosts of a meeting to mute other participants. This will allow them to have an interruption-free virtual meeting and restrict people from unmuting themselves unless they are unlocked by the hosts. Google Meet lets hosts mute others: How can you do it? The feature will be useful in situations when people forget to mute themselves during meetings and thus, will ensure smooth running of video calls. It will also give the hosts more control over the meetings and let them decide the level of participation on part of the various people attending the meeting. It is being rolled out to Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and Education Plus domains and is expected to reach other Workspace domains soon. Google, via a blog post, said, “The meeting host is the only user in a meeting who can use the “mute all” feature. Once all participants are muted, the meeting host cannot unmute them. However, users will be able to unmute themselves as needed”. It added that, for now, the mute all feature will be available only for the meeting’s host who will be joining from a desktop browser.  The feature is expected to be introduced on other platforms as well in the coming months. For hosts of meetings on Google Meet to mute other people, they will have to follow a few simple steps. All they have to do is point their cursor to the profile picture of the person they want to mute and then click on the Mute option. This feature will be provided to hosts by default so they can choose to mute people from the beginning of a meeting. It is suggested that the feature won’t be available for Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Plus, as well as G Suite Basic, Business, and Nonprofits customers. Additionally, this feature will be available for Android Marshmallow and above, and iOS 12 and above. However, people running older versions will be removed from the meeting if they are unmuted by the hosts. To get back into the meeting, they will have to update their devices.