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Have you ever needed to make sure your Meet link cannot be forwarded? Meet now gives you ultimate control over who can join, and who needs to ask for permission.
Let's look at how to disable quick access in Meet, what it does and when to use it.
Our most secure web conferencing software just got more secure.
What is quick access?
What is quick access?
Meet is secured by very long URLs that cannot be guessed - like passwords. If you want someone to join a Meet, you send them your password URL, either on the fly or via a calendar invitation, and they will join.
If they are secure at all, legacy web conferencing solutions have the problem that passwords are passed on: "Here, join their call, the password is PwC with a weird lowercase w". Having access to guest lists, Google Meet hosts were already safe: Only PwC people with the link could join, as could guests on the guest list. Guests not on the guest list had to ask to join.
If you are bothered by what sounded like "everybody with the link can", you can now rely ONLY on the guest list. The traditional easy access for PwC people is now called "quick access" and can be deactivated.
It will force anybody that you didn't explicitly invite to ask to join the call.
I would prefer it being called "strict mode" and be activated.
Wouldn't let this guy in.
How to disable quick access
How to disable quick access
Before the call: Go to Calendar, click Meet's "video call options".
During the call: Go to "Host controls".
Meet's behaviour after disabling quick access
Meet's behaviour after disabling quick access
New - Quick access disabled
New - Quick access disabled
This is how Meet behave if you DISABLE quick access. All of these mini-features are active at once, you cannot have one without the other.
Default - Quick access enabled
Default - Quick access enabled
This is how Meet will still behave EVERY time, unless you change it per Meet.
The host must join first
The host must join first
Extroverts usually start small talk and introduce themselves, while introverts look at their inbox - this "teacher must be present" feature comes from the education edition of Meet. It might be handy to avoid awkward moments of silence between people who don't know each other.
Might be a problem if the host never shows up.
Tip: If you are the host and expect connection issues, join early and make your colleagues co-hosts.
Anybody can join first.
Anybody can join first.
People can get started without the host.
Only people invited by the host can join without asking
Only people invited by the host can join without asking
Quick access is about making sure that YOU control who joins your Meet.
If you invite me to a party, and I bring my friends along, they will have to ask at the door. While Calendar does not visibly differentiate who added guests to an event, my friends will have to ask to join.
Everyone invited can join without asking
Everyone invited can join without asking
Meet's usual behaviour is simple: People on the guest list can join.
This easy behaviour is usually desired. If you invite clients and forget someone, they can quickly add that person. No second-class invitations, full transparency.
Everyone else must ask to join, including people who dial in
Everyone else must ask to join, including people who dial in
This means people not on the guest list, so people who received the link ("can you jump on this Meet?"). If quick access is disabled, your name needs to be on the guest list, otherwise you need to ask the host.
People calling in also need to be let in.
People within PwC with the link can join, including people who dial in
People within PwC with the link can join, including people who dial in
Meet's long URLs are unguessable, so they function as passwords. If someone told you the URL, Meet assumes they want you in the meeting. Dialing in requires a PIN - if you know it, you can join.
People outside of PwC need to ask to join.
People can't join anonymously
People can't join anonymously
Anonymous joining occurs when someone (who typically does not have a Google account) joins a Meet and just types any name, like "Joe Client".
I honestly can't see how this works differently - this is working when quick access disabled. Anonymous joiners will have to ask as usual, which is good.
People can join anonymously
People can join anonymously
When someone without an account wants to join, they type a name and ask to join.
Only hosts can dial out of a meeting
Only hosts can dial out of a meeting
Dialing out of a meeting is a way of directly adding someone via phone. If you want your audience tightly controlled, you want to be the person who places those calls.
All participants can dial out of a meeting
All participants can dial out of a meeting
Any person can place calls to include clients by phone.
Nerdy facts around quick access
Nerdy facts around quick access
Meet will always default to quick access enabled. You need to disable it if you want to seal off your Meet.
You can disable quick access before the meeting using Google Calendar. That is typically the main use case.
You can disable quick access during the meeting. That might be helpful if you want to wait until everybody has joined, and then lock down the meeting.
Like all other Meet configurations (Meet attendance, who owns the Meet etc.), quick access will "stick" to the Meet. Disabling quick access in one instance of a repeating event will disable it for all instances. That is typically desired - you want to save yourself work for your sensitive early morning meetings. Also, it's another example of why you should never reuse Meet URLs unless you have a very good reason to.
Any host (you can have co-hosts now!) can disable quick access.
Google Drive has a parallel mechanism: Shared Drives can be made super secure as well, restricting sharing only to members.
So... Do you always need to disable quick access?
So... Do you always need to disable quick access?
This is the big question. My answer is no. Quick access is good, Meets are secure enough. Link sharing happens with a purpose, and out-of-domain users sharing links to uninvited users always have to ask to join.
Disabling quick access may come with a cost - if many people ask to join, the host will be distracted by pop-ups. It is not nice to wait to be let in. If the host is late, everybody will hear "The host has not yet arrived!" and think that we had gotten over that years ago.
That said, there are use cases where you might want to be 100% sure you don't get interrupted. When you openly share your calendar, for example, and have a sensitive conversation. When you have ultra sensitive conversations. When you have big meetings that get live streamed and don't want anybody busting in on the chairman talking to thousands of people. When the client demands it.
Meet is our most flexible, most powerful and most secure web conferencing tool - this addition is yet another way for you to shape your meeting.
But what about passwords
But what about passwords
We won't discuss this again. If someone tries to makes you join a solution relying on passwords, switch to Meet today.
How about disabling quick access for your next 1:1 conversation? Nobody else needs to join that one. If you want to try the "guest" experience, try opening an "anonymous" Chrome window and joining it a second time in parallel. You will have to let yourself in. Thank you for reading!
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