Can Google Meet be recorded?

Good news for anybody irked by Zoom’s limitations in the age of pandemic: Google Meet is set to become free for everyone, making it a compelling competitor to the Z word.

Most importantly, it doesn’t have the 40-minute meeting limit that Zoom has. Typically Google Meet sessions are capped to 60 minutes for the free version, but Google has made this restriction considerably more generous until 30 September. Soon, you’ll have 24 hours per session, and frankly if you can’t complete all your face-to-face business in a day, then perhaps you need better time management. 

But can Google Meet be recorded? Yes, but there’s a “but” on the way…

Are Google Meet sessions recorded?

Google Meet sessions can indeed be recorded – but it’s typically a feature for G Suite Enterprise, which is aimed at businesses and costs £20 per user per month. Google plans to push out the feature to all G Suite customers until 30 September, but that still means prices start at £4.14 per user per month. 

Free users won’t be getting it at all, alas.

I’m a G Suite customer! How do I record meetings?

Assuming you are a G Suite customer, recording meetings should be pretty straightforward as the video below demonstrates.

• Start or join a meeting
• Click the three dots at the bottom right of the video window
• Press “Record meeting”. Google says that everyone else in the meeting will be notified to ensure they have consented, so you may want to tell people you’re doing it first so they’re not creeped out.
• When you’re done recording, tap the three dots again and then press “Stop recording”. Alternatively, recording will stop automatically when everyone has left the room.

Where are Google Meet recordings saved?

Google says that recordings will be saved to the organiser’s My Drive > Meet Recordings folder, but adds that an email with the link should also be emailed to the recorder directly. 

The original announcement of Meet recordings says that “the recording is automatically attached to the Calendar event and shared with all invited guests in the same domain,” too.

Why can’t I record Google Meet sessions?

There are a few possible reasons – firstly you may not be a G Suite customer. As mentioned above, this is a paid feature aimed at businesses and the education sector, not single users.

But even if you (or, more likely, your organisation) has paid for it, you might find you still can’t record. That’s because the admins at your company can control which meetings can be recorded. If they’ve done this by mistake, the setting can be adjusted within the Admin console at Apps > G Suite > Hangout Meet and Google Hangouts >  Meet video settings.

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