Google needs Meet to run on extra units and work higher with Zoom

Google is making an attempt to unfold its Meet videoconferencing software program to extra units and to make the {hardware} meant for Meet extra appropriate with Zoom. On Wednesday, the company announced that its enterprise model of Meet will probably be coming to units operating Android, the place it’s historically run on ChromeOS.

The latter change will begin with units from Poly and Logitech, however let’s again up a second right here as a result of I do know there are most likely a number of of you pondering one thing alongside the strains of “what do you mean, ChromeOS? Isn’t Meet just an app on my phone, or a website I can visit, or a tab in Gmail, or… ?” And the reply is sure, however for enterprise customers, it’s much more. For years, the corporate has been promoting devoted Google Meet {hardware} for board and assembly rooms that theoretically allow you to simply faucet on a touchscreen to affix or handle conferences. Those units, and others like them which have been designed for different videoconferencing providers like Zoom, are what we’re speaking about in the present day.

Back to Logitech and Poly. Both firms at the moment have techniques that look a bit like soundbars, price hundreds of {dollars}, and embrace an array of audio system, microphones, and cameras that should make everybody look and sound their finest throughout conferences. Starting in 2023, these units — particularly the Logitech Rally Bar and Rally Bar Mini and the Poly Studio X family — can have the choice of utilizing an Android-based mind that runs Google Meet. It was potential to make use of Meet with a few of these units earlier than, however theoretically, the native expertise will probably be higher.

Google’s additionally asserting interoperability with Zoom’s Rooms system (which is similar to the enterprise version of Google Meet however for Zoom). That implies that folks will be capable of use their Meet {hardware} to make Zoom Rooms calls, and folks with Zoom {hardware} will be capable of use Meet on it. According to the corporate’s weblog publish, the interoperability function, which is launching later this yr, will initially be supported by “all ChromeOS-based Meet devices,” such because the ones from Acer, Asus, and Lenovo, with assist for different Meet units coming over time. Meet will be capable of run on “all Zoom Rooms across all platforms.”

Google’s well-known for its complicated messaging technique, and the enterprise model isn’t that a lot simpler to know. However, it does appear to be the corporate is making an attempt to make it less complicated by getting Meet to a spot the place it’s extra platform agnostic — and by letting different firms’ providers run on Meet {hardware}.