Chykalophia Docs

How to start and join video calls using Google Meet — the video conferencing tool included with Google Workspace.

Google Meet is the video calling and conferencing tool built into Google Workspace. You can start a meeting instantly, join from a calendar invite, or schedule a call in advance — all without downloading any extra software.

Quick summary

Start a meeting at meet.google.com or from Google Calendar. Share the meeting link with participants. They can join in a supported browser — Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari — with no app to install. Meet also has apps for phones and tablets. Recordings (on supported plans) save to the organizer's Google Drive automatically.

Starting a meeting

Go to meet.google.com and click New meeting. Choose "Start an instant meeting" to jump straight in, or "Create a meeting for later" to get a link you can share in advance.

Joining a meeting

Click the meeting link from your calendar invite, email, or wherever it was shared. You can also go to meet.google.com and click Enter code to join with a meeting code.

Check your camera and microphone on the screen that appears. Make sure you look and sound good before joining.

Click Join now. You're in the meeting.

If you're not on the calendar invite, you have to ask to join, and the organizer or someone already in the meeting has to let you in. The same goes for people without a Google account: they enter their name, click Ask to join, and wait to be admitted. Your admin can tighten this further — for example, to allow only people signed in with a Google account, or only people in your organization.

Controls during a meeting

Button	What it does
Microphone	Mute / unmute your microphone
Camera	Turn your camera on or off
Present now	Share a tab, a window, or your whole screen
People	See who's in the meeting
Chat	Open the in-meeting chat to send messages
Turn on captions	Show live subtitles, for you only
Meeting tools	Recording and transcripts, on plans that include them
More	Settings, including how captions look
Leave call	Leave the meeting

At the bottom, click Present now.

Choose what to share:

A tab — shows only one browser tab (best for presentations; it shares that tab's audio by default)
A window — shows only one specific app or browser window
Your entire screen — shows everything on your monitor

Click Share. Others can now see what you're showing.

To stop, click Stop presenting — either in the Meet window, or at the bottom right under You are presenting.

If you present a window or your whole screen and want people to hear it too, turn on the option to share system audio in the same dialog. Screen sharing can be switched off by your admin or by the meeting host.

Recording a meeting

Business Standard and higher

If your plan supports it, you can record a meeting for people who can't attend. Recording is included with Business Standard and Business Plus, not Business Starter, and an admin has to turn it on for your account first. You can only record from a computer or an Android device.

At the bottom right, click Meeting tools, then Recording.

Click Start recording, then Start in the pop-up. Participants get a notification when recording starts and stops, so everyone knows.

To stop, go back to Meeting tools → Recording → Stop recording. Recording also stops on its own when everyone leaves, and after a total of 8 hours.

The recording saves to the meeting organizer's Google Drive, in the "Google Meet" folder, with a sub-folder for each meeting. Attendees get shortcuts to it in their own Drive.

Recording laws vary by location

Recording rules differ from country to country and, in the US, from state to state, so check what applies to you. Meet notifies participants when a recording starts and stops, and your admin can go further and require everyone to give explicit consent before recording begins. Either way, it's good practice to say it out loud as well. This is general information, not legal advice.

Live captions

Meet can show live captions as people speak. Join the meeting, then at the bottom click Turn on captions. Captions appear in real time, and they're on only for you — turning them on doesn't put them on anyone else's screen. This is helpful for people with hearing differences or who are in a noisy environment.

To change the font or colors, click More → Settings → Captions. Translated captions are a separate feature.

Maximum participants

Business Starter: up to 100 participants
Business Standard: up to 150 participants
Business Plus: up to 500 participants
Enterprise Standard: up to 500; Enterprise Plus: up to 1,000 (after the first 500, the next 500 join view-only)

Meetings can run up to 24 hours on any of these plans.

Common questions

Do participants need a Google account to join?

Not necessarily. Someone without a Google account can open the link, enter their name, and click Ask to join — but the organizer or another participant has to let them in. By default, meetings organized on a Workspace account allow both signed-in and not-signed-in guests; your admin can change that to signed-in guests only, or to your own organization only.

My camera or microphone isn't working — what do I do?

At the bottom, click More → Settings and check that the right camera and microphone are selected. Also check your computer's system settings to make sure the browser has permission to use your camera and microphone. The first time you use Meet, your browser asks for that permission — if you blocked it, you can allow it again from the camera icon in the browser's address bar.

Can I use Google Meet without Google Calendar?

Yes. Go to meet.google.com and create or join a meeting directly. You don't have to schedule it in Calendar first.

Where do meeting recordings go?

Recordings save to the meeting organizer's Google Drive, in the "Google Meet" folder, with a sub-folder for each meeting. An email with the link goes to the organizer and to whoever started the recording, and the link is added to the Calendar event. Attendees get shortcuts to the file in their own Drive.

If you have older recordings, look in "Legacy Meet Recordings" inside that same "Google Meet" folder — from July 2026 Google started renaming the old "Meet Recordings" folder and moving it in there. Old recording links keep working either way.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

Google Meet basics