Google Meet finally adds virtual waiting rooms for more meeting control

For years, users of competing platforms like Zoom have enjoyed the benefits of a virtual waiting room—a holding space where participants gather before being admitted into the main meeting by the host. It’s a feature that provides crucial control, prevents interruptions, and allows hosts a moment to prepare. Now, that much-requested capability is finally coming to Google Meet.

More control for hosts, less disruption for everyone

The new waiting room feature gives meeting hosts and co-hosts significantly more control over who joins their meeting and when. When enabled, participants attempting to join will first enter a virtual waiting room. They’ll see a message confirming they’re in the right place and will be admitted shortly. This holding pattern serves two key purposes:

1. Prevents Interruptions: It stops attendees from joining unexpectedly in the middle of a sensitive discussion or before the host is ready.
2. Allows Host Preparation: It gives the host or co-host time to prepare, review notes, or finish a prior conversation before admitting the main group.

What hosts can do

With waiting rooms enabled, hosts and co-hosts gain several new management capabilities:

• Admit or deny entry to individual participants waiting to join.
• Send one-way announcements to everyone in the waiting room (e.g., “We’ll begin in 5 minutes.”).
• Move participants who are already in the meeting back to the waiting room if needed.

Google highlights scenarios like board meetings, interviews, parent-teacher conferences, or client meetings as particularly well-suited for this feature, where hosts might need to speak privately with certain attendees before bringing them into the main discussion.

How to enable it

Meeting hosts and co-hosts can enable a waiting room when creating or editing a Google Calendar event. The feature will be OFF by default for end users, though Workspace administrators can change this default setting for their organization.

Waiting rooms are currently rolling out gradually (starting October 23, 2025) and will be available to most paid Google Workspace tiers (including Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise, and Education Plus) as well as Workspace Individual subscribers. This is a fantastic addition that brings a much-needed layer of control and professionalism to Google Meet sessions.