Google recently announced that its very popular video conferencing tool, Meet, is coming to Apple"s CarPlay, joining competitors like Teams and Cisco Webex on the platform. Microsoft launched Teams for CarPlay in September 2021, and Webex followed with its own integration in June 2022.
Just as with the other major video conferencing apps available on the dashboard, when you join a meeting via Apple CarPlay, you will not see any incoming video feeds or presentations from colleagues as the experience is strictly audio-only (obviously, to reduce distractions while driving).
You rely completely on the vehicle speakers and microphone to interact with other participants and control audio access. The host can turn on a waiting room, and you will receive a status message on your screen until the host admits you. Meeting hosts lack the ability to admit or reject participants directly from the car controls.
To join a meeting while driving, you connect your iPhone to your vehicle and tap the Meet app on the CarPlay display. If you are not already logged in, the system will prompt you to sign in on your phone when it is safe. The app skips the pre-call screen and puts you directly into the call with no video.
The audio can sometimes be muted if you are joining a large meeting. As for Breakout rooms, you get moved into them automatically and then pop back into the main room when the session ends. If you are already on a call, the audio switches over to your car"s speakers when you connect to CarPlay and your iPhone enters a simplified "On-the-Go" mode to reduce distractions.
If you want to use features like Chat, Hand Raise, Q&A, or Polls, you are out of luck while moving. Google advises that you safely park your car and use the full-featured Meet app on your phone for those interactions.
Meet on CarPlay is on by default and has already started rolling out gradually to all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers, and users with personal Google accounts. For Android Auto users, Google promises that a similar version of the app is coming soon.