While Google Meet has become slightly more popular ever since they made it temporary free, it still has a lot of catching up to do with video conferencing app Zoom. This is probably why they decided to roll out an update that would bring the video conferencing capabilities to the attention of users. Unfortunately, it seems to be a rush job and takes up a lot of unnecessary space so a lot of people are not happy. Fortunately, there’s a way to disable this layout and hide Meet in the interface.
We’ve previously told you about the Google Meet integration that they were rolling out on the Gmail mobile app. It is an obvious ploy to make people aware of Google Meet, just in case they didn’t know that you can do video conference calls from within the Gmail app. They created a special tab in the main user interface so what you’ll see when you open the app are two main tabs: Mail and Meet.
However, it seems like they didn’t put much thought into this tab and just rushed putting it out there to get people using it. Funnily enough, it even shows your scheduled Zoom meetings which don’t really help their cause. Previously you could find meet in the hamburger menu where other less-used functions are located but they wanted it to be up front and center, even if it does eat up a huge chunk of your UI. If you don’t use Meet or you don’t plan to use it, it’s kind of annoying.
The good news is that you can disable this easily, according to Android Police. Disabling it is on a per account basis and not the whole Gmail app though. Tap on the hamburger/side menu then scroll down to settings. Choose the account that you want to remove the Meet tab from then scroll down and find Meet. All you have to do is uncheck the “Show the meet tab” and voila, your Gmail will go back to “normal”.
We don’t know if the Meet integration will help Google zoom past, well, Zoom. While they are seeing increasing Meet users due to the free offer, some still prefer Zoom despite their security issues. Let’s see if having Meet alongside your email will change the game for them.
