This article is written for Google Workspace for Education Administrators and teachers.

The method of this article is outdated. Google adds the microphone management to the Host Control for Meet organizers since Oct 21, 2021.

Google Meet introduced a built-in Mute all button in 02/17/2021's update Mute all Google Meet participants at once. But students can still unmute themselves. Teachers cannot force students to not speak and interrupt.

The Mute all button in Google Meet
The Mute all button in Google Meet

This article explains how Safe Doc chrome extension can mute all students and lock muting using a simple chat command. If you have yet to install Safe Doc, please apply for a 30 days trial.

The magic "/muteall" chat command

Demo

As a teacher, you may simply type /muteall in the chat panel. Safe Doc will mute all students at once and students will be muted for the rest of session unless they refresh the page and rejoin the meeting.

In the following simulated demo, the top window is the teacher's Google Meet window. The bottom 3 windows are 3 students' Google Meet windows. The command is sent from the teacher's window and reached to the students' windows. Safe Doc then turns off all students' microphone and disables the microphone button.

Demo: Mute all and block unmuting in Google Meet using Safe Doc (the demo was based on the old Meet interface before 6/11/2021 but Safe Doc also works on the new interface)

Instructions

  1. (Admin): Deploy Safe Doc to your students' Chrome devices (Chromebooks or Chrome desktop browsers).
  2. (Teacher): Initiate a Google Meet session and add students.
  3. (Teacher): Disable Host control > Let everyone > Send chat messages (recommended).
  4. (Teacher): Open the Chat side window.
  5. (Teacher): type message /muteall and click send.
  6. All students are muted.
  7. All students' microphone button are disabled (greyed out) for the rest of session.

Enable the magic command

To enable this mute-all enhancement by Safe Doc, add and set the policy EnableMeetMuteAll value to true. For more information, see Safe Doc Configuration by Policies.

"EnableMeetMuteAll": {
  "Value": true
}

FAQ

Q: Can students unmute themselves after being muted?

No. Safe Doc will lock the muting for the session.

Q: Can I use the command multiple times?

Yes.

Q: Why to disable chat in Google Meet for students?

This avoids students from mistakenly initiating the /muteall command too.

You may also like

Share on LinkedIn Share on Reddit Share on Pinterest