A range of Poly‘s Google Meet devices is now interoperable with other rival video conferencing solutions in Cisco Webex and Zoom.
Poly’s Meet hardware devices now interoperable with Zoom and Webex are Poly Studio X30, X50, X52, and X70.
Webex and Zoom interoperability supports the central video conferencing features, but some more advanced capabilities — including polls, wired present, and dual-screen support — may not be available when using Poly Meet hardware to join Webex or Zoom meetings.
Google Workspace’s Blog wrote:
We’re expanding the existing interoperability between Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and Zoom to include Android-based Meet hardware devices from Poly. Specifically, these devices include: Poly Studio X30, X50, X52, and X70.”
For admins, the default configuration on Google Meet hardware includes the availability of both Zoom and Webex interoperability on devices. Importantly, administrators have the option to disable this default setting through the Workspace Admin console at the Organizational Unit (OU) level.
Poly Meet end users can join an ad-hoc Webex or Zoom meeting by simply selecting “Join or start a meeting” on the touch controller and choosing Webex or Zoom via the dropdown options. They can join a scheduled call by adding a room to an event with Webex or Zoom meeting details. However, calendar events created outside of Google Calendar must be manually duplicated and input with room information.
There is no additional cost to the new interoperability, and the feature is rolling out now in general availability, with the rollout expected to take up to 15 days for full visibility. The capability will be available to Google Workspace customers with Google Meet hardware subscriptions.
What Were The Big Google Meet and Google Workspace Stories of 2023?
Last January saw Google Meet maintain its trend of interoperability with other video conferencing platforms, with some Google Meet devices beginning to enable users to join Zoom meetings.
Additionally, those customers with Zoom Rooms could join Google Meet meetings. Participants could either directly join a meeting from a Zoom Room or a Google Meet device calendar via a one-click button or by typing in a meeting code.
In July, that interoperability favour was reversed, with Microsoft Teams introducing the function to join meetings set up by third-party services, including Zoom and Google Meet, directly through their Teams calendar.
The solution streamlined the process of joining meetings organised across multiple conferencing platforms, with Teams potentially serving as a hub application from which to join other vendors’ services.
On the Google Workspace front, the biggest story was the arrival of its generative AI-powered productivity tool, Duet AI for Google Workspace.
Duet AI aims to simplify workflows by offering meeting assistance, document and conversation summaries, a chatbot for Google Chat, and personalised suggestions for Gmail responses. Duet AI for Google Workspace is priced at $30 per month per person, but users can take advantage of a no-cost trial.
In other Workspace 2023 news, Google enabled passkeys for over nine million organisations as a replacement for passwords. The new sign-in method offered business users a convenient and secure means of authentication through fingerprint, face recognition, and more via their phones, laptops, and desktops. Passkeys were designed to protect against the growing number of phishing attacks impacting business security.
Google also introduced an innovative meeting scheduling feature to Workspace and Gmail to streamline the process of organising availability. Gmail users could offer their availability within the message draft with a distinct Calendar icon at the bottom right of the toolbar. Selecting this allows users two actions, the first being “Offer times that you’re free”.
