Google today announced that it is rolling out interoperability for Google Meet with Microsoft Teams, meaning you can now join Microsoft Teams meetings from Google Meet and, conversely, join Google Meet meetings from Microsoft Teams.
Google says that to join Teams meetings from your Google Meet setup, you need to have a Chrome OS-based Google Meet hardware device. In the case of joining Meet meetings from a Microsoft Teams Room, your device needs to be the Windows-based variety of Teams Rooms hardware.
Google Meet hardware devices are purpose-built systems designed to make video calls easy within Google Workspace, often featuring a Chromebox as the compute unit, a smart camera for clear video, a touch controller for simple call management, and a Speakermic that zaps echoes and background noise.
On the flip side, Microsoft Teams Rooms devices usually include a compute unit (either a Windows mini-PC or an Android appliance), a touch console, and certified cameras, speakers, and microphones.
To set up Google Meet in a Teams Rooms device, an admin needs to figure out if Direct Guest Join (DGJ) or Cross-Platform meetings via SIP join is the right fit for the organization, understanding that DGJ offers up to 720p video quality and does not support sending content with an HDMI cable or content camera.
Then, the Teams Rooms" resource accounts Exchange mailbox must be configured to process invites for third-party meetings by retaining the meeting invite body. Organizations also need to ensure no tenant policies are blocking devices from connecting to third-party meeting services and, if third-party URL rewrite solutions are in use, add Google’s meeting URLs to an exception list to prevent the links from being broken.
Finally, admins must enable Google Meet as a third-party meeting provider within the Teams Rooms device settings, either through the Teams Pro Management Portal, local device settings, or by using the SkypeSettings.xml config file.
Joining a Teams meeting with Google Meet hardware is a bit more straightforward for the end-user. If the Teams meeting is scheduled on a Meet hardware device in Google Calendar, you simply tap the meeting name with the subtitle "Via Microsoft Teams" from the room"s schedule, and the meeting kicks off when the Teams host joins.