Messaging and video conferencing sites took off in the last two years, due to how the global pandemic has affected physical meetings and the subsequent rise of video conferencing sites that took the place of physical meetings to bridge the gap between people spread across continents and countries. Google’s Meet has always been well regarded, but it got beaten quite fairly by the likes of Microsoft Teams and, more important Zoom, the latter having taken the world by storm and becoming one of the most popular applications of its kind. Now, it seems that Google is ready to take the fight back to Zoom and try to claw back a bit of its lost ground by making Google Meet a Progressive Web App or PWA, according to Google’s latest post on its Workspace Blog.
Google Meet is Now A PWA on Chromebooks
For those of you wondering as to what a PWA is, it is basically a website that is made to look and behave like normal applications that you install. Users will be able to use them via a click of the list of applications, rather than having to open a website URL on your browser of choice. It is worth noting that Google Meet’s PWA version fails to add any new or revolutionary features, with Google stating that as a standalone application, it will now be easier to find and use, and it will also streamline the user’s workflow by eliminating the need to switch between tabs. Fret not though, as users accustomed to Google Meet have nothing to worry about, as they should be able to make use of the same set of features and functions, such as the new layout and the ability to set animated backgrounds on the conferencing application. When it comes to installation, to install the PWA on a Chromebook, one can navigate to meet.google.com and then click on the install icon that is present on the right-hand side of the URL bar. Google has mentioned that users will also be prompted to try out the PWA whilst visiting the site. Once the installation process is complete, the user should be able to find and access the same from their application list. This move comes a month after Google launched its own PWA for the top Chromebooks, touting more features and better performance over the previous version of the application.
