How to get Picture in picture for Google Meet calls
Google Meets is yet another meeting/video chat service from Google. It’s not exactly competing with Zoom or Microsoft Teams. The features aren’t even close but Meet is for a quick video call.
Meet is based entirely in the web browser which is what basically allows it to be used by anyone in a matter of seconds so long as a browser is available. That also limits what features it supports but it’s the only way to keep it light and easy to use.
Picture in picture Google Meet
Google Meet doesn’t have picture-in-picture by default. It can blur the background just fine but there’s no way to move a video to a corner of the screen. To do that, you need an extension called MeetInOne.
MeetInOne is available for Chrome and Safari. It also has a stand-alone macOS app with a Windows 10 app in the works.
- Install MeetInOne in your browser.
- Join a Google Meet meeting.
- Picture-in-picture is enabled by default.
- Click the icon at the top left.
- The video will enter picture-in-picture mode.
Other Google Meet features
MeetInOne can add an amazing list of features to Google Meet. To activate them, click the app icon and you will see a long list of switches that enables a feature.
The features that it can add are;
- Dark Mode.
- Auto-mute on join.
- Auto video off on join.
- Skip the waiting screen.
- Get a transparent bar at the bottom (where the controls appear).
- Push-to-talk with the spacebar able to mute/unmute the mic.
- Auto reject and auto-accept participants.
- Auto open the chat.
- Auto enable captions.
- A meeting timer, and more.
MeetInOne has a desktop app and the Chrome or Safari extension has an option to open the app. You can sign up to test the Windows app. The desktop app isn’t needed to use Meets or to use the extension.
Conclusion
Meet exists as an online tool independent of Google’s other services. It will work in any modern browser and it will work without a Google or Gmail account. During this year when most chat apps have either added features to compete with the growing demand, Meet has only added Gmail integration. It isn’t competing with Microsoft Teams and waiting on it to add more sophisticated features is pointless. Meets is what it is. You can use Hangouts instead if you want to use a Google product. Outside of Google products, there are lots of alternatives.
