Google Meet

The Browser-First Approach

Google Meet was Hangouts, then it wasn't, and now it's the video backbone of Google Workspace used by over 300 million users. The killer feature is simplicity. Open a link in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge — you're in the meeting. No downloads, no plugins, no "updating" dialogs. For companies that value speed over features, that alone is worth it.

Workspace Integration Done Right

Meet lives inside Google Calendar. Click "Join" on a calendar event and you're in. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides present natively. The "Take notes for me" AI feature creates automatic meeting notes in Google Docs — it captures key points, action items, and decisions without you doing anything. Gemini integration is pushing this further with real-time translation and smart suggestions.

What You Get (and What You Don't)

Free Meet includes 60-minute group calls with up to 100 participants and noise cancellation. Workspace Individual at $7/month adds longer meetings, recording, and attendance tracking. Business plans add 150-500 participants, breakout rooms, and polls. What's missing compared to Zoom: no native webinar mode, limited virtual background options, and breakout rooms arrived years late and still feel basic. Recording goes to Google Drive, which is great unless you're already fighting Drive storage limits.

The Google Ecosystem Lock-in

Meet works best when everything around it is Google. Calendar, Gmail, Drive, Docs — the experience is seamless. But if you use Outlook for email or Slack for chat, Meet becomes just another tab. The lack of persistent team channels means you need Slack or Google Chat alongside it, and Google Chat is... not great. Meet is excellent as a meeting tool. It's not trying to be a collaboration platform.