After allowing organizers to approve knocks in bulk, Google Meet has added a new feature for its users that will allow them to virtually raise/lower their hand if they want to ask a question. The company announced the newly-added feature through a post on Google Workspace Updates Blog on Tuesday. Meant for video meeting participants, the ‘raise hand’ feature will appear at the bottom of the screen, which they can tap to ask a question or indicate if they want to speak. The same feature also allows a participant to lower his/her hand if they’ve already raised.
According to Google, the new “Raise hand” feature will help prevent people from interrupting one another in large meetings and increase participation without disrupting the flow of an ongoing conversation. Here’s how the new “Raise hand” and “Lower hand” feature works and how to use it.
How to Raise/Lower Hand in Google Meet
In large meetings with a large number of participants, the new “Raise hand” feature will greatly help in reducing interruptions and increase more participation. To raise your hand, click on the “Raise Hand” button at the bottom of your screen. You can see the position of this new button in the screenshot below. Once you click on this button, Google Meet will let all meeting participants know that a meeting participant has raised a hand. Also, the “Raise Hand” button will change to the “Lower Hand” button, which you can click to lower your hand if you don’t want to ask the question or speak anymore.
For moderators, a hand icon will appear in their video preview when a participant raises a hand. Additionally, a moderator will hear a sound notification if he is presenting in another tab. Besides, they’ll also be able to see all raised hands in the meeting participant list panel on the right. From there, the moderator can lower the participants’ hand or let them ask questions.
In terms of availability, the raise hand feature is already rolling out to both the Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains from November 17 onwards. It may take up to 15 days for feature visibility. Further, this feature will be available to all Business and Enterprise customers except the Workspace Business Starter and G Suite Basic customers and users with personal Google Accounts.
