Google Meet getting the Raise Hand feature

Google earlier this year announced a bunch of new features coming to Google Meet in 2020. The list included features like tiled view, background blur, and breakout rooms, between other. The list also included a feature called the Raise Hand button. When announcing the feature in August of this year, Google said it would be available “later in the year.” Now the company has started rolling out the feature to Google Meet.

To give you a quick overview, the Raise Hand button allows video conference participants to ask questions or share their views by virtually raising their hand on the platform. This would indicate to other participants that the participant wishes to speak. In large meetings, this would help increase attendance without disrupting the flow of conversation and preventing people from interrupting.

The Raise Hand button appears in the bottom bar of Google Meet, right next to the Turn on captions and Present now buttons. To raise your hand in Meet, click the Raise your hand button in the bottom bar during the meeting. Once the button is pressed, it changes to a “Low Hand” button, which you can click to lower your hand.

Google explaining the feature in a blog post said that when an attendee raises their hand in Meet, the meeting moderator will see a hand icon in their video preview. If the moderator presents in another tab, they will receive a sound notification when someone raises their hand.

The moderator will also be able to see all raised hands in the order they were raised in the meeting attendee list panel to help them answer questions accordingly. The moderator can lower a specific person’s hand or lower all hands.

This feature will be enabled by default and will be available to Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus customers as well as G Suite Business, Education, Enterprise for Education and Nonprofits in the coming days. .