Learn about the Meet layout for your computer

Based on your feedback, we simplified the desktop and laptop versions of Google Meet to give you more room for video feeds, content, and make controls easier to find.

Find your controls

You can find all controls in the bottom bar of the meeting window. The bottom bar is always visible.

The meeting code is on the bottom left corner.

When the screen is maximized, a clock appears on the bottom left.

Microphone, camera, captions, hand raise, presentation controls, more options and hang up button are in the middle.

So you don’t accidentally hang up, the leave meeting button is on the far right, away from the camera and mic buttons.

Tip: When you point to a button, the name of the button appears.

On the bottom right, you can find meeting details like joining info, the people panel, the chat panel, and the activities panel for Breakout rooms, Polls, Q&A, and more.

Important: Education users can find the Host controls button next to the activities panel.

See what you're presenting

You can now simultaneously see other participants and what you present on-screen. Point to your presentation feed to:

Unpin a presentation to view it as a tile so you can see additional participants.

Mute any audio in your presentation.

Remove a presentation from a meeting when someone joins only to present.

Tip: For better presentations and to avoid mirroring, you should share your content from a different tab (strongly recommended) or window than the meeting window. If you need to share your entire screen, move your presentation to a different monitor if possible.

Change your self-view

If you’re in a meeting with one person, your self-view shows as a floating picture at the bottom right corner. If someone else joins or a presentation is added, your self-view is automatically added to the grid. When your self-view is added to the grid, your video feed might be cropped. Depending on other participants’ layouts and screen sizes, it’s possible that others may see more of your video than you see in your cropped self-view.

To see your uncropped self-view, you can either uncrop your self-view in its tile in your grid, or switch to the floating picture. Your choice saves for future meetings.

To change between your self-view options

If you appear as a tile within the grid and want to switch to floating:

Hover over your tile.
Click More options Remove this tile .

If you appear as a cropped tile within the grid and want to view yourself uncropped:

Hover over your tile.
At the bottom right of your self-view tile, click Let Meet shrink my video for others .

If you appear as an uncropped tile within the grid and want to view yourself cropped:

Hover over your tile.
At the bottom right of your self-view tile, click Crop .

If you appear as a floating picture and want to switch to in-grid:

Hover over your tile.
Click More options Show in a tile .

Tips:

Your self-view preference remains the same for all future meetings unless you change it.
Uncropping your self-view in this way only affects your personal view of your video feed. Other users will find your video feed in the aspect ratio that works best for their screen. To ensure that you always appear uncropped on others’ layouts, follow the instructions here.
Meetings with 3 or more participants: You can select between floating self-view or be part of the grid. The setting is saved for all your future meetings.
Meetings with just 2 participants: You’ll see yourself as a floating picture when you join the meeting by default. You can still change your self-view to a tile, can be cropped or uncropped, within the grid. The setting is saved for all your future meetings.

Manage your floating self-view

To move your floating self-view:
1. Hover over your floating self-view until the icon shows.
2. Drag your self-view to a corner of your screen.
Important: If you minimize your video feed, it only applies to your view.
- If using “Tiled (legacy)” layouts: In some cases, your self-view could appear with gray bars at the top and bottom to show you everything your camera sees. Other participants might see a cropped version of your video feed.

Optimize your view with Dynamic Layouts

On a computer, join a video meeting.
At the bottom, click More Change layout .
Select an option:
- Auto (dynamic) : This default layout maximizes available space and focuses on what’s most important. This layout allows for portrait tiles, where the backgrounds of participants might be automatically cropped out. It adapts your view and tile size in Meet based on the:
  - Size of your browser window
  - Number of participants in the call
  - Presence of active presentation
- Tiled (legacy): This view shows users in a fixed grid without portrait cropping. It doesn’t use screen space as efficiently as “Auto (dynamic),” but is less likely to crop anyone out of view. If there’s no active presentation, it can show up to 49 people at the same time. By default, you find 16 tiles on your screen.
  - At the bottom, move the slider to the number of tiles you want to see on your screen. The number of tiles you choose becomes the default for future meetings until you change it. In some cases, you might see a message that your selection is not saved, this can be due to performance limitations on your computer’s processor.
- Spotlight: The active speaker or shared screen fills the entire window.
- Sidebar: The main image is the active speaker or shared screen. You’ll see thumbnails of additional participants on the side.
Optional: You can hide participants who turn off their video. This doesn’t affect how their screens look. To hide non-video tiles:
1. At the bottom, click More .
2. Select Change layout .
3. Turn on Hide tiles without video .

Use picture-in-picture

Learn how to use picture-in-picture with Google Meet.

Understand how 3rd party extensions work with Google Meet

Some 3rd party Meet extensions may cause unexpected meeting issues. For example, video feeds or side panels might be cut off or missing. For the best performance, you should disable 3rd party extensions.

Disable external 3rd party Meet extensions

On your computer, open Chrome.
At the top right, click More More tools Extensions.
Next to the Meet extension, turn the extension off .