What you need to know
- Google Meets gains a new anonymity feature for polls and asking questions.
- A meetings admin on Meet can decide whether or not they will allow anonymous poll answers or questions to be asked.
- The new Meet feature began its rollout on July 19 and should be widespread in 15 days.
Google looks to provide a little more for its users that utilize the video-calling service Meet. The update looks to provide users with a way for them to gain anonymity with questions and polls.
Google Meet has become one of the go-to video conferencing services since the pandemic hit. Meet's new feature, which has been slowly rolling out since July 19, will bring a new level of anonymity to the service. Google will allow members of a meeting to ask questions or respond to polls the meeting admin created anonymously.
According to Google, meetings will accept anonymous questions by default, but a meeting host or co-host could turn that function off if they choose. On the other hand, "anonymous polls will be off by default." That function can be altered by the host or co-host, as well.
If someone were to respond to a poll or ask a question anonymously, their information would remain hidden from those in the meeting. However, Google does explain that it "retains your poll response and anonymous questions." It goes on to say the data is "later anonymized or deleted."
Google expanded on the reasoning behind this new anonymity update for participants using Meet. A feature like this was a "top request" from users - especially from those who are in larger meetings. Google is targeting those users that don't want their responses to be known by everyone, saying that this should be a positive addition to public meetings.
Google has begun a slow rollout of this new anonymity feature to Meet, and it will be available for select Workspace accounts. The rollout is suspected to be complete within 15 days.
