Over the past few years, and especially the last few months, we have witnessed how real-life experiences are rapidly being digitized. From taking notes on your tablet to professional meetings on Google Meet, now the important things in life happen on screen more than ever before.
While digitization was never expected to replicate the real world, there was a time when the true size of digital replication lay in how well it removed any clear indication of the difference between virtual and real life.
But over the years as we have become less sensitive to differences, the additional features we see in app design play a very important role in enhancing the experience that has become the norm. In this article, we will take a look at the pin feature in Google Meet.
- What Does It Mean to Pin on Google Meet?
- What Happens When You Pin Someone on Google Meet?
- How to Pin in Google Meet (Pin Meeting Attendees) on PC
- How to Pin in Google Meet (Pin Meeting Attendees) on HP
- How to Unpin Participants Pinned on Google Meet PC
- How to Unpin Participants Pinned on Google Meet HP
What Does It Mean to Pin on Google meet?
Google Meet has the ability to host hundreds of active and vocal participants in a single Meet room, which, while that sounds a bit cool, can get messy if there isn’t a possible way to organize and control the flow of calls.
The pin feature brings some control back to participants by allowing them to vote and literally pin whoever they want on the screen. Using the pin option, users can return focus to the specific participant they want to see on their screen regardless of who is speaking during the meeting.
Since this feature is available to all participants in the meeting, it is up to each participant to decide who they want to continue to see on their screen. Meeting hosts won’t be able to prioritize who can watch especially on other people’s screens.
The Pin (embedding) feature is basically useful for bringing visual focus on one person over another in a call.
What Happens When You Pin Someone on Google Meet
When you pin someone in Google Meet, regardless of who is speaking and how your Meet tile design has been set, the person you have pinned will be the only person whose video output you can view continuously. Tiles or other tiles with active speakers (for larger meetings) will be scaled down to a smaller size and moved to the right or bottom side of your meeting screen depending on how many meeting participants are currently hosting.
This rule applies even when you choose to embed yourself. You can choose to unpin the person whenever you want.
Also read: How to Use Google Meet Filters and Effects
Since anyone in the meeting can pin anyone else to their screen, you don’t need to be a meeting host to be able to pin someone. You can also join a meeting that invites you and pin someone you want to be visible on your screen at all times, regardless of who is speaking.
How to Pin in Google Meet (Pin Meeting Attendees) on PC
There are two ways to pin someone within Google Meet PC, the first from the meeting screen and the second from the participant sidebar.
Method #1: From the Meeting screen
The easiest way to Pin (pin) a meeting participant in Google Meet is to hover over their video box until you see a pill-shaped box containing more options. Click the Pin icon on the left side of this pill to make sure their video feed stays within your screen.
Once you pin the selected person, their video feed will now expand to a wider space while the videos of other participants will be moved to the right side.
You can also use this method to embed your own video feed into the meeting screen so that your video stays zoomed in.
Method #2: From Participant Sidebar
If you find it difficult to pin participants directly from the meeting screen, a neater way is to access the list of people present in the meeting. To do so, enter the meeting where you want to pin someone, then click the People icon in the lower right corner of the screen.
When you do, a sidebar will open on the right side of your screen showing a list of everyone present in the meeting. To pin a participant, click the 3-dot icon next to the participant’s name under “People”.
In the menu that appears, click “Pin to screen”.
When you do, the selected person’s video feed will be highlighted at the top of the screen with videos from other participants resized into a smaller box below the embedded video.
This layout can change when you close the “People” sidebar on the right side.
If you want to embed your own video in the meeting, you can click on the “Embed” option next to your name which will also be marked with “(You)”.
Also read: How to Automatically Accept Meeting Attendees on Google Meet
How to Pin in Google Meet (Pin Meeting Attendees) on HP
If you use Google Meet on your mobile, you also get two ways to pin participants in the meeting.
Method #1: From the Meeting screen
The easiest way to embed a participant’s video within the Google Meet app is to first enter the meeting, then tap the 3-dot icon in the lower-right corner of that participant’s feed. If you can’t see this 3 dots icon in the video feed, tap anywhere on the meeting screen once and you will see it.
When you tap on the 3 dots button, a popup menu will appear at the bottom. Here, select the “Pin” option.
When you do, the selected participant’s video feed will expand to a larger portion at the top of your screen. You will see the Pin icon highlighted in the bottom right corner.
Method #2: From the People list
If there are many people in the meeting and you find it difficult to pin any of the participants, you can use this method to gain access to the People screen and then proceed to pin participants from there.
To open the People screen, tap the meeting code/link at the top of your screen. The meeting code consisting of 10 random letters will appear at the top of the meeting screen to the left of the Camera flip key.
When you tap on the meeting code, you will see the “About this call” screen loaded. Here, make sure the “People” tab is selected. Now, tap on the 3 dots icon adjacent to the person whose video you want to embed.
In the menu that appears, select “Pin”.
You should now be able to see the video feed of the participant which is now occupying most of your screen with the videos of the other participants visible at the bottom.
How to Unpin Participants Pinned on Google Meet PC
If you are done focusing on the participants in the meeting and want their video feed reduced to its original size, you can unpin their videos. Similar to pinning participants, you can also unpin someone from your screen in two different ways.
Method #1: From the Meeting screen
When you have pinned someone in Google Meet, you can unpin them directly from the meeting screen. To do so, hover over the participant’s embedded video box until you see a transparent pill-shaped box in the center of their video feed. In this pill-shaped box, click the Pin icon diagonally.
When you unpin a pinned participant, their video feed will be reduced back to its original size, just like any other meeting participant.
Method #2: From Participant Sidebar
You can also unpin pinned participants from the People sidebar. To pull up the People sidebar, click the People icon in the lower-right corner of the meeting screen.
Inside the People sidebar, find the person you pinned and click on the 3 dots icon adjacent to their name.
Next, select the “Unpin” option from the menu that appears.
The embedded video will now be removed from the pin position and will be reduced to its original size like any other participant’s video.
How to Unpin Participants Pinned on Google Meet HP
Method #1: From the Meeting screen
The easiest way to unpin participants is directly from the meeting screen. When participants are pinned, you will be able to see their videos expanded to cover more than half of your phone screen. To unpin this person, tap the highlighted Pin icon in the lower right corner of the embedded video.
When you do, the embedded video will be reduced to its default size.
Method #2: From the People list
You can unpin someone from the People list by first entering the meeting and tapping the meeting code/link at the top of your screen.
When the “About this call” screen appears, select the “People” tab at the top and look for the person whose video you want to unpin. Once you find this person, tap on the 3 dots icon next to their name.
In the popup menu that appears, select the “Unpin” option.
Embedded videos will now be reduced to their default size, just like other participants’ video feeds.
That’s how to Pin in Google Meet (pin meeting participants) on PC and mobile. I hope this article helped you! Thank you for visiting and don’t forget if you find this article useful, please share it with your friends too.
