Use add-ons with Google Meet

On your computer or mobile device, you can use Google Meet add-ons to enhance collaboration, productivity, and the overall experience of your meetings.

Tip: For Meet users who have a Workspace admin, your admin may pre-install or restrict the usage of certain add-ons for you. Learn how admins can control your add-ons experience.

All users will find pre-installed 1P apps from Google by default on their device.

Eligibility

You can’t use add-ons if:

Your Workspace admin has blocked the add-on.
You use Meet through a Family Link account.
Your meeting host has assigned you a View only role.
You're not signed in with a Google Account.
You're under the age of consent in your country or region.
You are in a client-side encrypted meeting or attending a Live Stream event.

About third-party add-ons

If you use Google Meet with an enterprise or education account: Add-ons are available for all meetings and calls regardless of the number of participants.
If you use Google Meet with a personal account: Add-ons are available for all meetings regardless of the number of participants.

Tip: All add-ons don’t work across every platform.

When you’re on an unsupported platform, you’ll get this pop-up notification: “Can’t join the activity.”
If you have an add-on installed on a desktop that doesn’t work on a mobile device, the system will gray it out in the Tools panel and list it as an unavailable add-on.

Install third-party add-ons within Google Meet

To make call controls appear, tap the screen More controls Tools .
In the “Tools” tab, you can install featured add-ons like Spotify.
- Important: Only Consumer users can see this add-on, not Enterprise users.

Tip: Within the Tools section, you can install Spotify directly.

If you want to install an add-on, tap its icon.
From the new screen, tap Install the add-on.
Tap Install the app.
In the App Store page of the add-on, tap Install.
After installation, you can use the third-party add-on for collaboration within Google Meet.

Use other Google products as add-ons within Google Meet

You can use certain Google products such as YouTube as add-ons within Google Meet to enhance the overall experience of your meetings.

Google products that are available as add-ons are built into the Meet app. To use them within Google Meet you'll need to Install the Google app from the Play Store (if it’s not pre-installed).

To Install the Google app from the Play Store (if it’s not pre-installed):

In the Meet app , tap the screen so that call controls appear.
Tap More controls Tools .
In the “Tools tab,” under the Google section, you’ll notice a list of Google products.
Tap a Google product you want to collaborate with.
Tap Install.
From the Google Play Store page, tap Install.
To use the Google add-on for collaboration with other meeting attendees, after installation, go back to the Meet app .

Tip: Once you start an activity with a Google add-on, you may be asked to read and accept the Terms of Service of the particular Google app. Follow the on-screen instructions if prompted. You'll only be required to accept the Terms of Service once.

For Meeting Hosts

Start an activity with an add-on

Important: Make sure the add-on is installed and available (refer the sections above)

In the Meet app , tap the screen so that call controls appear.
Tap More controls Tools .
From the “Tools tab,” tap the add-on you want to collaborate with.
From the new screen, tap Open app.
On the add-on app you open, select the content or video you want to share.
You'll notice an on-screen prompt to “Start a Meet Activity.”
Tap Start.
Once the activity begins, other meeting participants will be able to join the activity with you

Important: Previously, some Google Meet users might have used the Meet app to play games or co-watch videos. These experiences were pre-built into the Meet app and didn’t require any additional installation. These experiences will continue to be available but will now require installing them as add-ons (refer steps to install add-ons above). Keep in mind that not all experiences will move over right away.

End an activity

From the blue banner on top of your screen, tap End.
From the on-screen pop-up, tap End activity.

Important: If a meeting host leaves the meeting, the activity automatically ends for all the participants.

For Meeting Participants

Join an activity with an add-on

Joining an activity when you already have the add-on installed

Join the meeting.
At the top of your screen, on the blue banner, tap Join.

Joining an activity when you don’t have the add-on installed

Join the meeting.
At the top of your screen, you’ll notice a blue banner with the name of the add-on you currently use.
Tap Get the app or Get the add-on.
Tip: This depends on the kind of add-on a host has started an activity with.
If it’s a third party add-on: Refer to the "Install third party add-ons within Google Meet" section above to complete the installation process.
1. After installation, go back to the Meet app .
2. From the blue banner at the top of the Meet screen, tap Join.
If it’s a Google product add-on: Refer to the "Use other Google products as add-ons within Google Meet" section above to complete the installation process.
1. After installation, go back to the Meet app .
2. From the blue banner at the top, tap Join.

Tip: In some cases an add-on might not be eligible to use. This can be due to reasons such as an add-on being disallowed by your admin, add-on not compatible with your device, and so on. When this happens, you’ll notice a “Can’t join activity” prompt on your screen. To dismiss, tap Got it.

Leave an activity

From the blue banner at the top of your Meet screen, tap Leave Activity.
From the pop-up that appears, tap Leave Activity.

When you leave an activity, other meeting participants might still continue to collaborate via the add-on until the meeting host ends the activity for everyone.

If you want to return to the activity after leaving it, from the blue banner at the top of screen, tap Join.

Tip: Hosts also have the ability to end the activity for all participants.

Learn about host controls

This is currently available on desktop. If a non-host joins from a mobile device, they won’t be able to start an add-on activity.