Google Meet update makes Hand Raise requests more visible

After introducing the much-needed Hand Raise feature in Meet, Google has now made it more useful for all parties in a call. With the latest version of Google Meet, it's easier for admins to notice raised hands, address participants and deal with a queue, Google announced.

Google Meet's updated Hand Raise makes it easier for admins to spot you (Engadget)

The new features include an improved visual icon and animation on the video tile, showing a raised hand animation that expands to show the name of the participant (above). The tile of folks with raised hands can be moved to be more visible in the grid view and will be accompanied by an "audio notification for all participants when the first raised hand is raised," Google said.

Admins will also see a clickable notification showing the number of raised hands and link to a queue of all participants with raised hands. To keep things less cluttered, a participant's hand will be lowered automatically after they speak.

The new features will be available in meetings across most of Google's business products, apart from G Suite Basic, Google Workspace Business Starter customers and personal Google accounts. It'll roll out to rapid release domains starting June 16th, and scheduled release domains on June 30th, 2021.