You may have be aware that you can present directly from Google Slides during Google Meet conversations, but have you ever actually used this function? In a strict sense, it is not “feature complete.” It is now quite annoying to have to open the Slide in a different Chrome browser tab in order to view your notes because they are not directly accessible in your active call.
As per usual, Google is releasing an update that will eliminate this annoyance by adding speaker notes right into the Meet call sidebar for easy access.
This will enable you to completely avoid switching between tabs, even though you will still need to keep the Slides tab open independently in order to screen share your presentation.
Once you have the update, all you have to do is choose the “Present a Tab” option, pick the Chrome tab you want to use for your presentation, and then click the “Share” button to confirm. Then, select the “Speaker notes” symbol with three horizontal lines from the bottom bar. Anything you had prepared to say out will now appear for you and only you, and the audience won’t know where you learned your public speaking skills.
Since the distribution has already started and will be finished over the following week and a half, speaker notes integration in Meet calls will be given to Rapid Release domains first. The change won’t be visible to Scheduled Release domain owners until January 30th, and even that could take up to two weeks to complete.
Everyone else will receive this at launch, however customers of Google Workspace Essentials, Business Starter, Education Fundamentals, Frontline Legacy G Suite/Business licences will not.
