Google Meet overhaul begins rolling out with option to revert back to legacy experience

Last month, we reported on Google’s plans to completely overhaul Meet – its video chat service now hugely popular with Workspace users in education and enterprise and has exploded in growth thanks to the global pandemic. Now, that’s beginning to happen, and Google has given us updated information to discuss!

Rapid Release domains will begin to see the new and improved experience in Meet over the next two weeks, while Scheduled Release domains will have to wait for their chance up to two weeks after June 1, 2021. Users with personal Google accounts may already be using the service’s new tools and visual refresh, which started about three days ago.

For a time, Google is placing a banner message at the top of the new Meet green room preview before entering calls that informs the user of the change. Just as with many of its other products that go through a metamorphosis, an option to swap back to the original Meet experience is being offered. Being called the legacy experience, you can click the banner’s blue link to jump back to the old school version of the web app.

Now that Meet has added a grid view to the service, anyone using the third-party Grid View extension we recommended in the past may experience some issues with the new visual layout, so disabling it may be the best option. Let’s discuss the new Google Meet design down in the comments and let me know if you’re seeing it yet.

All Workspace tiers
G Suite Basic
G Suite Business
Google Meet users with personal Google accounts

Availability