Google Meet hosts can keep participants mics and cameras off

Google

Google Meet is getting a new feature that can help prevent distractions from noisy or unruly attendees. Hosts will get the option to turn off participants' microphones and cameras and prevent them from turning these back on. 

This mic and camera lock feature will be off by default, so hosts will need to turn this on during meetings if they want access to it. If the sessions have breakout rooms, the audio and video locks in the main will apply there. But it won't work the opposite way, meaning if the locks were implemented in the breakout rooms, they wouldn't apply outside of those sessions.

All Google Workspace customers will get access to the feature. It has begun rolling it out to those on the Rapid Release tracks, while those on the Scheduled Release track will get it on November 1.

Users who use older versions of the iOS and Android apps that don't have the feature will get kicked out of meetings once the hosts turn on the locks. And if this feature was turned on ahead of the meeting, those on the older apps won't be able to join the session at all. Those people using older apps can only enter when the locks feature is turned off.

Source: The Verge