Google Meet Now Has A Standalone Web App

If you’re tired of keeping your Google Meet browser tabs open, today is your lucky day. In a blog post on Google Workspace updates, Google announced that Google Meet is now available as a standalone web app. It’s not just an app, it’s a PWA (Progressive Web App), so you don’t need to install a separate app, just add it to your Chrome browser. 

Progressive Web App is available to anyone using Chrome 73 or later. This way, you can install PWA on any computer with Chrome OS, Windows, macOS, or Linux. According to Google, Meet PWA is the best way to use a video chat service on your desktop. 

There seems to be no difference between PWA and using Meet on the browser. In fact, Google’s blog post confirms the Meet PWA has the same features of Meet while on the browser. The only difference is that Meet will no longer be used in a browser tab. It helps since it’s a separate window users can switch to easily instead of between tabs on a browser. 

If you’re new to PWA, this is a basic web app that provides the same experience as a regular desktop app. However, you don’t have to install the ‘app’ and it shouldn’t take up a lot of memory or storage space. There are now mobile PWAs as well, which are very useful for those looking to save space and storage on their mobile devices. It looks like Meet PWA for mobile doesn’t exist. Because Google is insisting on using standalone apps or apps built into Gmail.

Google also noted that if you install Meet as a PWA instead of using it in a browser, you won’t lose functionality. The only requirement is that Chrome (or Microsoft Edge) must be installed on your computer to download.

Google Meet PWA is available to Google Workspace customers and G Suite Basic and Business customers with personal Google accounts. A few weeks ago, the Company announced that Gmail users who are not on G-suite will be limited to a 60-minute group chat call. Though, it maintains that individual or one-on-one calls will continue up to 24 hours, both for free and enterprise users.