HOW TO USE : GOOGLE MEET

 How To Use Google Meet

Trivia over video call, graduation ceremonies through the lens of a webcam, happy hour from your own kitchen table while you stare at a screen—all of these, combined, sound like a fever dream, but it's reality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of them aren't so familiar, though. There's Skype, but it's not exactly in style, and Zoom, but it has a whole hoard of security issues. There's another major platform called Google Meet (previously called Google Hangouts Meet), which basically didn't exist before the outbreak, except as a corporate video conferencing tool for companies using Google's paid suite of software.

But now, anyone can use Google Meet, and here's what you should know.

Where Can I Download?

Whether you prefer to video chat on mobile, or on your laptop, you can use Google Meet. It's available for free on the App Store for iOS devices, as well as the Google Play market. To use the web app, click here. The premium service (which lets you add more users and record calls) is free for everyone until September 30, and after that will cost $6 per month.

In a confusing twist, this is not Google's first video app. It also offers Duo, which is more analogous to a Facetime call than a Zoom meeting. Still, it's not always clear when you should jump to using Google Meet, rather than Duo—you'll definitely need Meet for calls with multiple people (it supports calls with two to 250 people), but you could use either for a one-on-one cocktail hour.

How Do I Join a Meeting?

If you already have a Gmail account, simply head to Meet.Google.com and either click the green "Start a Meeting" button or enter a Meeting ID in the field to the right. And that's really it! As long as you're signed into your Gmail account, you can automatically start or join a meeting.

Otherwise, you will need to make a Gmail account to use the service (don't worry, that's free, too).