Google Meet / Google Hangouts vs. Zoom?

can you disable join via url in GSuite? Because anyone with the link can say they're whoever they want to pretend to be

 

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Just like in real life then

As well as the above anyone within your Gsuite domain (if you are able to get hold of a class nickname) can join the meeting. I've not found a way to change a Classroom nickname.

There is no way of locking the meetings so the host (teacher) has to invite other students who are not in their class. It's like a free for all.

Locking the meetings would solve this issue!!!

Which is why im doing a bit of research into GoToMeeting which is free for 3 months for education establishments. Both GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar are free for hosts.

I've been told GTM will write recordings Cloud Storage too.

Their license model is to lisense the host.

yep, i would make sure you log into admin and turn off the phone in details unless youre paying for edu ent - someone will undoubtedly call the USA number and get upset with their phone bill

Just a FYI about Meets Phone in being USA number... As my Fiancée is an American living here if you do want to call the USA without it costing an arm and a leg (£1 a minute is normal for most cell phones) but with 3 even PAYG its 3p a minute... and if you are ever visiting the USA anytime its as cheep to use call / data over there as here on 3... I know not directly relevant but might help some bods out... my work phone is o2 i got a big bill the first time I went to the USA!!! and when i called American Airlines USA number for 50 minutes it was about 50-60 quid... Ever since I have a PAYG 3 sim i put in my phone just for going to the USA… the only thing I do not know about is if it works with the USA 1-800 numbers that google use…

Just to point out that the teacher has to accept the guest but who is to say the guest has a fake name and is the same name as someone who should be in the class. I could happen!! As well as the above anyone within your Gsuite domain (if you are able to get hold of a class nickname) can join the meeting. I've not found a way to change a Classroom nickname.

Couple of good points there: if an external user can get hold of a Meet URL (I'm thinking child passes on Meet URL to elder sibling, sibling posts URL to forum encouraging people to go and crash the meeting kind of scenario) they could turn up with a semi-convincing name and be let in. Worth emphasising to teachers that anyone joined to your Classroom should already be able to access the Meet, so unless you're specifically expecting a guest speaker for a session, simply denying any external requests is the best idea.

For any domain user being able to join a Meet, we should be able to see that on the activity audit log. This becomes a discipline issue - we can find out who came and disrupted a lesson, and teaching staff can go and tell them off. How, exactly, telling a child off over video conference works I'm not quite sure - I'm guessing that's going to come down to parental support to back up the teaching staff.

If users record Meet sessions they get placed in a "Meet Recordings" folder in Google Drive, and as GSuite domain admins we can access those recordings if needed for audit / safeguarding purposes.

That is true, but then theres the problem of them not recording it. I really do think all Meets should be recorded and stored in Vault by default. Not for users to be able to use those recordings, but purely for safeguarding purposes, should there ever be an issue. Asking users to remember to record for safeguarding is bound to lead to issues.

Urmm, what are peoples thoughts on this:

Our students are using their school-issued accounts to connect to Google Meets that have been created with private Google accounts. They are doing this to get around the recently-added feature of preventing students from re-entering nicknamed Meets after the teacher has left.

I saw this on https://www.cloudconnectcommunity.com/ccc/ls/community/g-suite-chrome-feature-ideas and thought i'd test it out. Tested with one of our test student accounts and sure enough, students are able to join private hangout meetings with their school google accounts.

The poster goes on to say:

Desired behavior: We would like the ability in the admin console to restrict, by OU, whether members of the OU can join Meets that were created outside of the domain (much like the control available in Hangouts Chat).

 

Possible solution: A checkbox or drop-down of a range of permissions in the admin console, to permit/restrict members of an OU from joining a Meet created by an account outside of the domain.

 

Possible alternative: a domain-level option to allow/disallow all domain accounts to participate in Meets outside of the domain.

you need a school account and to log in to join the GMeet meeting. For teachers it won't really matter, but once you have pupils in meetings they'll just give the joining link to trolls to disrupt their own lessons, so might as well learn how GMeet works now.

This has never been the case. You've always been allowed to join a Meet without an account of any sort. You simply type your name and then wait for someone to allow you to join. The meeting host will get a message saying that [Name] (unverified) is trying to join the meeting. I just tried it now for verification.

In the recent update from last month, only the host can now allow people into a Google Meet, making it much safer as only the host has control to the meeting.

Still poses an issue as it just states the name of the joinee with "(non-verified)" next to their name.

If they are a verified guest (link sent to the via an invite), they can join at anytime without the host admitting / accepting them. There needs to be a waiting room for verified guests so the Host can admit them.

During the meet, the guest might enter at an inappropriate time.

There's no way to stop people making their own video chats on the internet, doesn't matter if they're using school accounts or not

I understand that but surely we have responsibility to protect those that use the school accounts from being able to join private hangout meets. At least then we can say, they used their own personal account to join a private meeting and not their school account.

Not really, there's a billion sites they can log into, does it matter what account they use? They probably don't even know

Bit cynical but hey, we live in a litigious world.

It's not something they're doing with a school system though, it's an email address being used as a logon.

"We're suing the school because a pen from that school was used to draw a fylfot"

I understand that but surely we have responsibility to protect those that use the school accounts from being able to join private hangout meets. At least then we can say, they used their own personal account to join a private meeting and not their school account.

It would be nice if meet had an end meeting button for the host...

Kids rejoining after teacher leaves is a problem and the using of nicknamed meetings(they close when the last person leaves) is a crappy bandaid at best.

"We're suing the school because a pen from that school was used to draw a fylfot"

"We're suing the school because our child slipped on a patch of ice. That you taped it off and told them not to go on it, is irrelevant"

Something that actually happened in a school I work at.

It must be exhausting to spend your life being so contrarian.

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a crappy bandaid at best.

Surely a motto for the times we currently find ourselves living in

Kids rejoining after teacher leaves is a problem and the using of nicknamed meetings(they close when the last person leaves) is a crappy bandaid at best.

The teacher should be waiting for everyone to leave though, same as in real life when a lesson ends and then they lock the classroom door aka end the meeting

The teacher should be waiting for everyone to leave though, same as in real life when a lesson ends and then they lock the classroom door aka end the meeting

Or they should just be able to end the meeting....

the most convenient way to make a meeting (calendar) also doesnt close when the last person leaves... i appreciate its been shoehorned but how hard is an end button...

"We're suing the school because our child slipped on a patch of ice. That you taped it off and told them not to go on it, is irrelevant"

 

Something that actually happened in a school I work at.

It must be exhausting to spend your life being so contrarian.

Did they win?

And how is a parent letting a child using their internet connection go on a website they don't want them to be on, anything to do with the school? That they logged in using email address x instead of y has no relevance.

Not really, it's quite fun.

[update] New Google Meet settings will allow more control from the Google Admin console

As of June 15, 2020, new standalone Google Meet settings will give you more control from the Google Admin console.

Dear G Suite Administrator,

 

We’re introducing standalone settings for Google Meet (formerly known as Hangouts Meet) in the Google Admin console. These settings will allow you to enable or disable Meet independently of classic Hangouts chat.

 

What do I need to know?

On May 15, 2020, we’ll begin rolling out a separate Meet settings page in the Admin console (at Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Meet) over 5-7 business days. This page includes a Service status option that will allow you to enable or disable Meet and will include the same Meet video settings, Gateways for interoperability, and Meet quality tool menus that currently appear on the existing Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts page in the Admin console.

 

Except for Service status, any other changes made to the Google Meet settings will be reflected on both pages and go into effect immediately. This means that if you make changes to the Service status in Google Meet between May 15 and June 15, you will also need to change the Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts menu settings.

 

When Google Meet Service status is ON, users in your domain will be able to join Meet video calls.

For greater control, you can check Let users place video and voice calls to let users create Meet video calls, in addition to joining calls when the Google Meet service is ON.

When Google Meet Service status is OFF, users will not be able to create or join Meet video calls.

What do I need to do?

If you take no action, your current Google Meet settings will remain the same. After June 15, 2020, all service status, policy, and delegated privilege changes for Meet must be done in the new Meet settings menu.

 

Otherwise, choose from the following options for your domain:

 

Option Instructions

To turn on Google Meet before May 15 If your Google Hangouts service is currently turned off, but you want Google Meet turned on before May 15, 2020, you must log in to the Google Admin console and follow the instructions below:

 

To let users join Meet video calls:

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts > Service status and set to ON.

To let users create Meet video calls:

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts > Meet video settings > Video calling and check the box to Let users place video and voice calls. We recommend that you only do this for faculty and staff.

To turn on Google Meet between May 15 and June 15 If your Google Hangouts service is currently turned off, but you want Google Meet turned on before June 15, 2020, and stay on after June 15, you must log in to the Google Admin console and follow the instructions below:

 

To let users join Meet video calls, set the Service status to ON in both Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts and Google Meet menus:

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts > Service status and set to ON.

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Meet > Service status and set to ON.

To let users create Meet video calls:

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Hangouts Meet and Google Hangouts > Meet video settings > Video calling and check the box to Let users place video and voice calls. We recommend that you only do this for faculty and staff.

To turn on Google Meet after June 15 If your Google Hangouts service is currently turned off, but you want Google Meet turned on starting on June 15, 2020, you must log in to the Google Admin console and follow the instructions below:

 

To let users join Meet video calls:

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Meet > Service Status and set to ON.

To let users create Meet video calls:

Navigate to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Meet > Meet video settings > Video calling and check the box to Let users place video and voice calls. We recommend that you only do this for faculty and staff.

To configure admin privileges before June 15 If you had previously configured privileges for delegated admins for Google Hangouts and want to maintain those settings for Google Meet, you must configure privileges for your delegated admins to ensure they have read and/or write access to the new Meet settings.

 

We're here to help

 

Thanks for choosing G Suite.

 

—The G Suite Team

Weird that they allow hangouts, a recent issue with meet I had (Can't join GMail meets from a GAFE account) was met with this from google support :-

I have presented the case to our dedicate team, who handles such cases, as presented by your side. As from their prescriptive, they have contacted the Product Engineering side and for extra security measure of the Google Education/Non-profit subscriptions, they are including the options to not allow to join external session by this moment.

 

That is caused, due to the fact that Students under your Organization could join such session, and violate the G Suite Terms of services at any time. That is why this is implemented from there for a security and privacy measurement.

 

I understand the inconvenience of the occurred situation has caused and I want to assure that it was previewed several times in regards of it. At the moment, the unfortunate part is that there is not an official documentation stating that it is applied for G Suite subscriptions that are having as stated Education/Non-profit.