Google Hangouts Meet conference calls are controlled using the Call Controls menu that appears at the bottom of each video call session. Detailed information on the Call Controls is offered below:
The Microphone button toggles Mute/Unmute states for the active microphone. The microphone icon will have a WHITE background when the microphone is Active/Unmuted (active), and a Red background when it is Muted.
The Leave Call (Hang-up) button disconnects the call, deactivating the webcam and microphone in the process.
The Webcam button toggles between Share/Hide states for the active webcam. The webcam icon will have a White background when the webcam is Active/Shared, and a Red background when it is Hidden.
Note: If you hide your webcam (deactivate video) Hangouts Meet will instead show your account profile picture. Audio will continue to function as normal with the webcam hidden.
The Captions button toggles closed captions on/off for the video call. The captioning icon will have Black text when captioning is inactive, and Green text when it is active. This is a per user setting, so you can only toggle the setting for your individual screen. Turning captions on will leverage the Google voice recognition to attempt voice to text recognition. Captions will appear in the lower left corner of the video window.
Note: The quality of the audio from individual participants has a direct bearing on how accurate the captioning will appear. See our Tips for a Successful Video Call guide for strategies on improving call quality, and thus the accuracy of captioning.
The Present Now button enables screen sharing from the the host computer. Clicking the Present Now button will open the Present popup menu, allowing you to select whether to share Your Entire Screen, or just a specific Application Window. For more information on this function, see the full article on Sharing Your Screen in Google Hangouts Meet.
The More Options button opens a popup menu with additional call controls and settings. Below is a list of the additional controls:
Selecting Settings from the More Options menu launches a pop-up menu that allows you to select different audio or video input devices and adjust audio/video quality settings within the call. Hangouts Meet automatically selects the internal webcam and microphone of the device, if it has one. If you would like to use a higher quality external device, such as a USB webcam or microphone, you will need to go to the Settings menu to select the device once it is plugged in to the computer. The Settings menu is split into Audio and Video tabs for easy navigation.
If do you need to make any changes to input/output devices or video quality settings: