Google Meet will open the flood gates later this year with new YouTube live streaming feature

To date, Google Meet allows you to host meetings for up to 500 active attendees, but no more, and they all have to be a part of your Workspace organization. This limit is probably due to Google’s server capacity for the Meet software or perhaps it’s in place because most Workspace users don’t or won’t go any higher than this.

That’s likely been the reason historically, but in recent times, users have been begging Google to either increase this cap or to allow live streaming to external platforms so that they can increase the reach of the message they’re spreading using the company’s tools.

Ever since the pandemic began, video call usage has exploded, and pretty much everyone is using this technology to connect with loved ones, conduct business meetings, and even just to touch base with friends whom they used to sit down face-to-face with prior to COVID and all that it’s changed in our society.

In light of this, Google announced today that it will introduce direct to YouTube live streaming later this year! This means that after starting a Meet call, you’ll be able to activate a connection to YouTube right from the activities tab, allowing any number of viewers to see your call – “no cap”.

The recently announced real-time video reactions for Meet are likely being added not only for call participants but also for YouTube viewers who tune into your call later this year. Giving millions of people a way to interact with your content and then hopefully letting you collect analytics about which aspects of the call were most engaging sounds like a win to me. At this time, emoji reactions are not said to be coming to YouTube in regards to Meet, but I can see this being a great way to use them.

In addition to live streaming capabilities, Google Meet is also getting direct integration with Docs, Sheets, and Slides, a picture-in-picture mode, Q&A and polls for attendees, improvements to companion mode, and more. Let me know in the comments if you think you’ll have a use for putting your Meet business out there for the world to see via YouTube, or if you’re going to keep a tight circle.