Start a video meeting for education

This article is for teachers. Students go here.

With Google Meet, you can start class video meetings in Classroom, Meet, Google Calendar, and Gmail on your computer or mobile device.

Before you begin: Video meeting tips

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Requirements & best practices
  • Make sure that you meet the requirements for Meet. Learn more.
  • Review best practices for distance learning at the Google for Education Teacher Center. Learn more.
  • Print instructions for getting started with Google Meet. Learn more.
  • There's a limit to the number of people you can have in a video meeting. Learn more.
  • The type of account you have determines what meetings you can join and who can join your meetings. Learn more.
Accessibility & tech tips
  • To help students who are deaf or hard of hearing, turn on live captions in Meet. Learn more.
  • If internet speed is slow, turning off your camera can improve video meeting quality. If audio quality is poor, you can use a phone for audio. Learn more.
  • If you’re using a mobile device, install the Google Meet app. Learn more.
  • Charge your device before the meeting. On some fanless devices, such as tablets and laptops, charging during the meeting can reduce video quality.

Create video meetings in Classroom

You can set up and start class video meetings in Classroom. To use Meet features in Classroom, your Workspace administrator has to turn on Meet for your school.

Set up a video meeting in Classroom
Create a unique meeting link that students can use to join your class video meetings. You and your students can use the same link for all of your class meetings.
In Classroom, only you and your co-teachers can create, show, hide, or reset the meeting link or start a class video meeting. Permissions vary based on how your admin sets up Meet for your school.

Create a Meet link in your class

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Under Meet, click Generate link.
    • Or click Settings . Then, under "General," click Generate Meet link.
  4. A Meet link appears for your class.
  5. Click Save.
If you make the link visible to students, it appears in their class stream.

Dismiss the Meet card from your Stream

If there's no active Meet link for your class, you can dismiss the Meet card from your Stream. This declutters your Stream if you don’t use Meet in Classroom.

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Select a class.
  3. Next to Meet, click More More and then Dismiss.
  4. Click Dismiss from Stream.

If you dismiss the Meet card, you can still create a Meet link in Settings .

Show or hide a Meet link for students

Students in the same organization as the primary teacher can find the class Meet link on the Stream and Classwork pages. You can hide the link from students until you're ready to share it.

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Next to Meet, click More More and then Manage.
    • Or click Settings .
  4. Next to "Visible to students," select an option:
    • To hide the Meet link from students, click the switch Off .
    • To make the Meet link visible to students, click the switch On .
  5. Click Done or Save.

Copy a Meet link

You can copy a Meet link and paste it into an assignment, question, or message.

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Next to Meet, click More More and then Manage.
    • Or click Settings .
  4. Next to the Meet link, click the Down arrow and thenCopy.

Reset a Meet link

If you have issues with the link, you can reset it and get a new one. The old link won't be associated with the class but will be available as an independent meeting space.

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Next to Meet, click More More and then Manage.
    • Or click Settings .
  4. Next to the Meet link, click the Down arrow and then Reset.

Remove a Meet link

When you remove a Meet link, students won't be able to access it in that class. The old link won't be associated with the class but will be available as an independent meeting space.

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Next to Meet, click More More and then Manage.
    • Or click Settings .
  4. Next to the Meet link, click the Down arrow and then Remove.

Upgrade an outdated Meet link

If your Meet link is outdated, you might get a message to upgrade it. You can upgrade all outdated links or one link at a time. Outdated links won't work as intended and might let students become the host.

To get a new Meet link to replace the outdated one, upgrade your link.

  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Next to Meet, click More More and then Manage.
    • Or click Settings .
  4. Next to the Meet link, click the Down arrow and then Upgrade.

Add a Meet link to an announcement

  1. Copy the Meet link (instructions above).
  2. On the Stream page, click Announce something to your class.
  3. Enter your announcement and at the bottom, click the Link icon .
  4. Paste the Meet link and then click Add link.
  5. Click Post.

    Note: You can also schedule the post for later or save it as a draft. For details, go to Post, schedule, or save a draft announcement.

Add a Meet link to an assignment or question

  1. Copy the Meet link (instructions above).
  2. On the Classwork page, click Create and then Assignment or Question.
  3. In the assignment or question details, click the Link icon .
  4. Paste the Meet link and then click Add link.
  5. Click Assign or Ask.

    Note: You can also schedule the post for later or save it as a draft. For details, go to Post, schedule, or save a draft assignment.

Start a video meeting in Classroom
  1. Sign in to classroom.google.com.
  2. Click the class.
  3. Choose an option:
    • On the Stream page, under Meet, click Join.
    • At the top of the Classwork page, click Meet.

      If you don't find Meet, make sure the link is visible to students (instructions above).

    • In a question or assignment, click the link for the class video meeting.
  4. In Meet, before you join the meeting, at the top, check that you’re signed in with your Classroom account. If not, click Switch account and then select or sign in to your Classroom account.
  5. Click Join now.
  6. If you’re the first person to join the meeting, you’ll find a window to invite others. If you don’t need to invite anyone or share the meeting link, you can close this window.

Start video meetings in other apps

You can create, start, and join a class video meeting in Google Meet, Google Calendar, and Gmail.

Start a video meeting in Meet

In Meet, you can start an impromptu meeting or one that you previously set up. After you start the meeting, you can share the joining information with your students in a Classroom post or message.

Tip: For greater control, create a nickname for your video meeting. If you’re the last person to leave a nicknamed meeting, students can’t rejoin.

Start a meeting right away

  1. Go to meet.google.com and sign in with your Classroom account.
    If you’re already signed in with a different account, at the top, click your profile and then Switch account and then select or sign in to your Classroom account.
  2. Choose an option:
    • To create a meeting without a nickname, click New meeting and then select from options.
    • To create a meeting with a nickname, enter a nickname in Enter a code or nickname field and then click Join 
  3. (Optional) To share a meeting nickname, post it in a message or a Classroom announcement, assignment, or question.
  4. (Optional) To share other joining details, choose an option:
    • Click Copy joining info and then paste the details in a message or Classroom post.
      If you don’t find Copy joining info, in the lower-right corner, click People  and then Add people  and then enter names or email addresses and then click Send email. 
    • Click Add people and then enter names or email addresses and then click Send email.
      If you don’t find Add people , at the top, click People and then Add People .

Start a meeting you previously set up

  1. Go to meet.google.com.
  2. Sign in with your Classroom account.
  3. Choose an option:
    • For a nicknamed meeting, enter the nickname in Enter a code or nickname field and then click Join.
    • In the list of meetings, click the meeting.
  4. Click Join now.

    Note: If you sent guests a message with the meeting link, they can click the link in the message to join the video meeting.

Leave the meeting

  • Click the meeting window and then Leave call  and then Select Just leave the call or End the call for everyone.
Start a video meeting in Calendar

You can create a class video meeting in Calendar and invite your students to join. You can also add view-only live streaming to an event for up to 100,000 people.

Note: If you create an event on someone's calendar, or transfer an event to their calendar, make sure you understand the video conferencing policies.

Related topics

Start a video meeting in Gmail

You can start or join video meetings in Gmail on your computer or mobile device. When you’re in the meeting, you can invite people to join you.

Tip: If you’re a Google Workspace for Education user, to use Meet in Gmail, your Google Workspace administrator must turn on permissions to create and join video meetings.

Related topics

Manage participants in a video meeting

As the meeting organizer, you can control how people can participate in a video meeting.

Manage access to a video meeting

As the teacher, you control who can access video meetings for your class.

When you create a Meet link for your class, you become the meeting host and current co-teachers of your class become co-hosts.

Tip: If you add or remove co-teachers from your class, their host status automatically updates.

How students join your video meeting

Your video meeting starts when you or any co-teacher joins. When students try to join, they enter a waiting room until a teacher joins the meeting.

After the meeting starts, students in your class don’t have to ask to join the meeting.

To restrict unauthorized participants in the meeting:

  • Anyone who's not part of your class must first ask to join.
  • You get notified when someone wants to join the meeting.
  • You can decide whether to let someone join.

Tip: To allow students and other meeting participants to join without a teacher present, you can control meeting access with host controls.

Manage co-hosts

When Host Management is on, the main host of a meeting can add and remove co-hosts. Learn more.

Tips:

  • If Host Management is turned off and then on again, previously appointed co-hosts are retained.
  • You can't appoint co-teachers as co-hosts if you:
    • Don’t use a Google Workspace for Education account for Classroom.
    • Use a personal Google Account.
Mute a participant

If there’s feedback or background noise, you can mute others.

For video calls through:

  • Personal accounts: Only the moderator can mute others.
  • Google Workspace accounts: Anyone from the domain that created the meeting can mute others.
  • Education accounts: Only meeting creators, calendar event owners, or those who set up the meeting on an in-room hardware device can mute others.

If you create or own the calendar that created the meeting, you can mute all.

Guests can unmute themselves.

  1. In a meeting, at the top, click People .
  2. Next to the person’s name, click Mute all .

Tip: For privacy reasons, you can’t unmute anyone. You can ask guests to unmute themselves. To mute or unmute yourself, tap Mute . 

Mute all participants

Important: Mute all is available for meeting creators and calendar owners with Education accounts.

Guests can unmute themselves.

  1. In a meeting, at the bottom, click People .
  2. Click Mute all .   
Lock audio during a meeting
Important: To use Audio Lock, you must first turn on Host Management.

Lock participants' audio

  1. During the meeting, from the bottom right, click Host Controls .
  2. From the side panel that opens, toggle Turn on their microphone on or off.

Tip: After you turn off Audio Lock, participants must manually turn on their microphones.

Learn more about Audio Lock.

Lock video during a meeting

Important: To use Video Lock, you must first turn on Host Management.

Lock participants' video

  1. During the meeting, from the bottom right, click Host Controls .
  2. From the side panel that opens, toggle Turn on their video on or off.

Learn more about Video Lock.

Remove a participant
You can remove a student during a meeting.
  1. At the bottom, click People .
  2. Next to a student’s name, click the More actions More and then choose an option:
    • To remove the student, click Remove from the call . 
Re-invite a participant you removed
If you removed a participant from a video meeting, you can re-invite them.
In Meet, during a video meeting:
  1. At the top, click People .
  2. Click Add people and then enter the participant’s email.
  3. Click Send email.

    After you send the email, the participant can join the meeting through your invite or the original link.

Approve or deny a request to join a meeting

Meeting hosts can approve requests to join a meeting that come from outside your class. No one can request to join a video meeting if their request was already denied twice.

In Meet, during a video meeting:

  • When you find a request to join in the meeting window, click Admit or the More actions More and then Deny entry.
Prevent students from rejoining a meeting

Hosts can end the meeting for everyone on a Google Meet meeting. 'End the call for everyone' ends the meeting and automatically removes all participants, so that the hosts don’t have to remove participants manually.

Learn how to end a meeting for all.

Prevent students from sharing their screen
You can only change this setting on a computer.
Meeting hosts can stop participants from sharing their screen. If you turn presentations off in recurring meetings or meetings that use the same meeting code, the setting are saved for the next scheduled meeting. If you turn presentations off in a one-time, nicknamed, or instant meeting, the presentation setting turns on after the meeting ends. 

To turn screen share on or off:

  1. Join a Meet video call.
  2. At the bottom, click Host controls .
  3. Turn Share their screen on or off.

Tip: If you can't turn the setting on or off, you might need to turn off a Chrome extension for Meet. Learn how to install and manage extensions.

Prevent students from sending chat messages in a meeting
You can only change this setting on a computer.

Meeting hosts can stop participants from sending chat messages. Participants can still read the messages.

If you turn chat messages off in recurring meetings or meetings that use the same meeting code, the setting is saved for the next scheduled meeting. If you turn chat messages off in a one-time, nicknamed, or instant meeting, the chat message setting turns on after the meeting ends. 

To turn chat messages on or off:

  1. Join a Meet video call.
  2. At the bottom, click Host controls .
  3. Turn Send chat messages on or off.

Tip: If you can't turn the setting on or off, you might need to turn off a Chrome extension for Meet. Learn how to install and manage extensions.

Use other Meet features

Find an attendance report for a meeting
After a video meeting with at least 5 participants, the meeting moderator receives an email with an attendance report attached.
Important: Only Google Workspace for Education Plus moderators can currently receive attendance reports in Google Meet. Anyone who schedules or starts a meeting will be the moderator. There can only be one moderator per meeting. If you transfer a meeting to—or schedule a meeting on—someone else's calendar, that person might become the moderator.

Find an attendance report

  1. Open the email account you use for Classroom.
  2. In the attendance report email, click the report attachment.

What does a report include?

The report is a CSV file and includes the following information:

  1. Participant’s name
    • If someone calls in, part of their phone number will be listed instead of their name.
  2. Participant’s email
  3. Length of time participant was on a call, including timestamps of when they first joined and when they left the call.
    • If someone gets ejected from a call, that timestamp will be recorded as the time they left the call.
    • If someone joins and leaves the call more than once, multiple timestamps won’t be listed, but their overall call duration will be included.

Note: Meeting moderators get attendance reports for all meetings, including those started from Classroom or meet.google.com.

Conduct a Q&A in Meet

This feature is available to teachers and students with a Google Workspace for Education Plus license who use the web version of Meet.

Anyone in a meeting can ask questions. The questions remain until they’re deleted or hidden. After a meeting, the moderator gets a detailed report of all the questions.

Learn about how to Conduct a Q&A in Meet.

Conduct a poll in Meet
Note: This feature is available to teachers and students with a Google Workspace for Education Plus license. To launch or respond to polls, use the web version of Meet.
As a meeting moderator, you can create polls for participants to vote on.
Anyone who schedules or starts a meeting will be the moderator. There can only be one moderator per meeting. If you transfer a meeting to—or schedule a meeting on—someone else's calendar, that person might become the moderator.
After the meeting, the moderator is automatically emailed a report of the poll results. The report includes the names and answers of the participants.

Create a poll

  1. In a meeting, in the bottom-right corner, click Activities and then Pollsand then Start a poll.
  2. Enter a question and add options for the poll.
  3. Choose an option:
    • To post your poll, click Launch.
    • To save your poll so you can launch it later, click Save.
      Tip: Polls you save remain listed under Polls.

Moderate a poll

  1. In a meeting, in the bottom-right corner, click Activities and then Polls.
  2. (Optional) To let participants find a poll’s results, next to Show everyone results, click the switch On .
  3. (Optional) To close a poll and prevent more responses, click End the poll.
    Note: Participants can still find the poll.
  4. To permanently delete a poll from your list of polls, click Delete .
    Note: No one can find deleted polls.

Find a poll report

After a meeting, the moderator is emailed a report for any polls conducted in the meeting. The report includes the names and answers of the meeting participants.

  1. Open the poll report email.
  2. Click the report attachment.

Related topic

Hand Raising with Google Meet
Use Hand Raise in Google Meet to let the moderator know you want to speak.

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