With the rise of video conferencing, Google is putting increasing pressure on Meet in its products. Gmail for Android and iOS are adding a dedicated “Meet” tab and the ability to quickly make / receive calls within the app.
Update 7/20: After arriving on iOS last week, Google officially announced that the Meet in Gmail integration is now ready for Android. Version 2020.06.28.320626991 is being widely deployed through the Play Store today. If you don’t get an introductory message after the upgrade, try “Force Stop” from the system’s “Application Info” page and start Gmail again.
Otherwise, the Meet tab will be fully available for the next 15 days. A useful feature is an unread count on the “Mail” icon in the bottom bar. This occurs when Google has just announced that Chat and Rooms will also come to Gmail.
Update 7/13: Google announced today that the Meet tab will launch on iOS first and will be widely available for the next two weeks. It is “coming soon” on Android, and the company clarified that “G Suite for Education accounts that cannot create Meet video meetings will not see the Meet tab.” Those users are asked to use the dedicated Meet client for Android / iOS.
Original 6/16: Google’s reason for this integration is how it wants to allow you to “easily join video conferences from your inbox.” On the web, this is presented as Meet shortcuts in the sidebar, while mobile apps will see a new tab at the bottom of the screen.
The “Meet” tab will display a “My Meetings” list of all upcoming scheduled calls. Tapping any meet.google.com URL from that view, in an email, or in a third-party app will take you to a new preview screen that provides basic details like duration and who’s on the call.
This screen will notice which account you are “joining as” and will check your video feed before joining. In fact, this Gmail Meet experience will replace the standalone Google Meet app by opening a link, although the client will remain available and get some tweaking.
A large blue “New Meeting” button above allows you to “get a meeting link to share,” “start an instant meeting,” or “Schedule to Google Calendar.” There is also the option to “Quickly join with a code”.
Meanwhile, the functionality you are used to in Gmail will be on the “Mail” tab. Google recognizes that some people may not like a lower bar to occupy their screen, so there will be the possibility to disable, like the web, and use Gmail regularly:
If you don’t want Meet to appear as a tab in the Gmail app, access Settings from the hamburger menu in the upper left corner of your inbox, tap your account, scroll down and uncheck Meet.
This Meet tab in Gmail for Android and iOS will be implemented in the “coming weeks”.
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