Anonymous users will be blocked from Google Meet for G Suite for Education

[DGardiner]

https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/07/anonymous-users-will-be-blocked-from.html

 

What do you guys think of this? the lack of admin is a bit... i think this will hamper uptake more than protect users?

[timbo343]

*slow clap to google* its another "we are doing our best".

 

What happens if a teacher wants to invite someone who has no gmail address such as an outside agency? Do we have to give "visitor" accounts to them?

 

It seems like 2 steps forward 1 step back.

[DGardiner]

*slow clap to google* its another "we are doing our best".

 

What happens if a teacher wants to invite someone who has no gmail address such as an outside agency? Do we have to give "visitor" accounts to them?

 

It seems like 2 steps forward 1 step back.

 

 

it wouldnt be so bad if it was a per OU switch, or a you know, a meeting that has external parties in the invite list have anon access and internals not? just seems like a backwards move

[timbo343]

it wouldnt be so bad if it was a per OU switch, or a you know, a meeting that has external parties in the invite list have anon access and internals not? just seems like a backwards move

 

Indeed so. It's certainly limiting!

 

Why can't one of the biggest internet companies get it right?! Talk about limiting it to those who only use Google products.

 

Google should be able to generate a token based link when a staff member invites an external user to the meeting. Talk about shooting your self in the foot or cutting your nose of spite your face, or even pi**ing in the wind!

 

In my opinion it forces yet another move to Webex.

[BlueSkies]

Will this stop students trying to join Google Meets when they haven't signed in properly? For example - sometimes when using a shared device at home, the student is still logged in as another user rather than their school user when they try to access their Google Meet. In this instance, they ask to join the meeting and are held in a type of "lobby" area. Whenever this happens, our teachers decline the request. It would be great to be able to limit Google Meets to only the students in the Google Classroom that the Meet belongs to - I just wonder if this change would put a tick in that box?

[timbo343]

Why it’s important

Anonymous users can cause disruption to learning by making noise and sharing content, and become a distraction for the meeting organizer when they try to join meetings.

 

So can students who are part of the class - do Google not realise this or even "get-it"?

[fiza]

But they do include the fact that you can ask for it not to apply to your domain.

 

Admins:There is no admin for this feature. G Suite for Education admins can request to have this feature disabled to allow anonymous participants to join Google Meet calls bycontacting G Suite supportto request an exception. This will allow meetings organized by users in their domain to allow anonymous users to join.[/Quote]

[timbo343]

This is a classic example of google not prividing a straight forward solution. More a "we will give you this but still keep what you want from you".

 

I wonder if GSuite enterprise will have all the stuff we want. Be interesting to see what they announce on Wednesday. If it's to go at with this feature i'm not holding up much hope of the new features.

[timbo343]

Another point from me on this one as i cannot believe it's such a backwards move. We conduct staff interviews via Google meet, this is going to cause issues for us and possibly force our hand to look else where.

[jthompson]

I thought they had a different solution for this in the works. I thought that the anonymous join requests were just going to be less disruptive by not popping up in the middle of the organiser's screen. I also thought that some kind of per meeting permissions options were on the way. You'd think that this could've easily been part of such per meeting controls.

 

Along with the fact that non-nicknamed meetings allow students to join at will with no option to ever end them, Meet is starting to look a bit crummy, when it ought to have been refining itself as a solid edu tool. I get the feeling that its underlying architecture simply isn't conducive to the sorts of granular controls that we need. Maybe the ability to end a meeting permanently will require a complete redesign and rewrite.

[Arthur]

I wonder if G Suite enterprise will have all the stuff we want. Be interesting to see what they announce on Wednesday. If it's to go at with this feature i'm not holding up much hope of the new features.

I thought they had a different solution for this in the works.

Some of the forthcoming new features are listed below.

 

Related thread: www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/215966-hand-raising-polls-breakout-rooms-coming-google-meet.html

 

Google Meet adding blurred/custom backgrounds, Q&A, polling, more

 

Google is previewing a number of upcoming Meet features for education and enterprise customers. This includes blurred and custom backgrounds, hand raising, and new moderation controls.

 

Like Zoom and other popular video conferencing applications, Google Meet will soon let you blur your background or replace it entirely. Google will offer a number of defaults, and you’ll be able to upload your own, though admins can disable this functionality.

 

Besides being fun, Google frames it as a way to hide “surroundings you don’t want others to see,” while it will help “students and educators feel more comfortable while on video from their homes. Custom Google Meet backgrounds will be available in the “coming months.”

 

Google recently introduced a 16-person tile view and is now planning to add a UI that can fit up to 49 participants at once. Other features on the Meet road map include:

 

• Hand raising: Increase participation in larger meetings by enabling participants to “raise their hands” when they have a question or something to say.
  
• Meeting attendance: Give meeting hosts a simple way to see who attended their meeting.
  
• Breakout rooms: Make it easy for large meetings to split into smaller groups, have parallel discussions, and reconvene once finished.
  
• Q&A: Provide a channel for the audience to ask questions without disrupting the flow of the conversation.
  
• Polling: Engage participants in large meetings with real-time polling.
  
• Additional moderator controls: Give meeting hosts additional controls for muting, presenting, joining, and more.
  

Google is also rolling out more moderation controls for teachers this year. Educators will be better able to control meeting requests through a “less intrusive” interface, and other behavior changes:

 

• When someone asks to join a meeting (or “knocks”), they won’t be able to knock again after being ejected from a meeting, and a knock will no longer show up after a moderator rejects it twice.
  
• Moderators will also be able to end the meeting for all participants, ensuring no students linger after the teacher has left.
  
• And we’ll soon block anonymous attendees from joining any Education meetings by default, though schools will be able to opt in to allow anonymous participants.
  

[DGardiner]

But they do include the fact that you can ask for it not to apply to your domain.

 

Whilst true, would have been nice to just be a switch in admin

[TwistedHelixis]

Nooooo we are running class transitions with all our parents using Meet.

 

Will need to request this is disabled for all my schools

[TwistedHelixis]

Just got off the phone and not surprisingly they have been inundated with requests to keep anon access Edited July 14, 2020 by TwistedHelixis

[IrritableTech]

Another point from me on this one as i cannot believe it's such a backwards move. We conduct staff interviews via Google meet, this is going to cause issues for us and possibly force our hand to look else where.

 

It's really easy to request the change via the admin portal - I've just done it via chat and it took only a few minutes. It would be nice to have a switch in the portal, and even nicer to have it controllable per OU, but you can ask for it to be disabled and we're back to the way we were a week or so ago - all meetings can allow anonymous access.

 

It makes sense to me that this is something Google wants to implement, but for us it doesn't fit so it won't be implemented.

[LeMarchand]

It's really easy to request the change via the admin portal - I've just done it via chat and it took only a few minutes.

 

How? I just got a bot that loped around.

[DGardiner]

How? I just got a bot that loped around.

 

i clicked until it said contact support anyway

[LeMarchand]

i clicked until it said contact support anyway

 

 

Grrr. Had to use email as the chat kept hanging on "choose language". As the rest of the form was in English, I'm not sure why this was even being asked!

[Brimstone]

Meh....

 

I've been doing Google Meets with plenty of schools that have no Google account, they just click the link, put their name in and I accept the invitiation.

[DGardiner]

Meh....

 

I've been doing Google Meets with plenty of schools that have no Google account, they just click the link, put their name in and I accept the invitiation.

 

thats the point, after this change they wont be able to?

[paulkerton]

This is a classic example of google not prividing a straight forward solution. More a "we will give you this but still keep what you want from you".

 

This is more of a case of Google giving you a feature that the majority have been asking for now, and will put a fuller solution in place later.

[Zammo]

This is more of a case of Google giving you a feature that the majority have been asking for now, and will put a fuller solution in place later.

 

 

I think the major issue is that it was announced and roll out started on the same day (as far as I can tell). Not ideal.

 

I also wonder how many schools will find a 100% ban on non-google users useful. A very small percentage I would guess

[TwistedHelixis]

I think the major issue is that it was announced and roll out started on the same day (as far as I can tell). Not ideal.

 

Yep, all a bit rushed. i hadn't even picked up on this change until it was highlighted in this post.

 

Apparently they will add something in admin GUI at some point.

[paulkerton]

I think the major issue is that it was announced and roll out started on the same day (as far as I can tell). Not ideal.

 

Don't disagree with that.

I also wonder how many schools will find a 100% ban on non-google users useful. A very small percentage I would guess

 

Depends on the feedback Google are getting, I suppose.

But anyway, September 1st everyone will be back and we won't need to use Meet with such ferocity anymore. Right? Right? Eh?

[LeMarchand]

Good lord!

 

1st site/chat: Great, all (presumably) done in short time.

 

2nd site/chat: Didn't seem to know wth he was on about, then passed me to a Meet "expert" (with the same name...) who wasn't any help, either.