As Google continues to integrate its various services into a unified workspace, it has aggressively pushed Google Meet (its video conferencing platform) into the core Gmail application. When you open the Gmail app on your iPhone or iPad, you will likely notice a large, persistent toolbar at the very bottom of the screen featuring two tabs: “Mail” and “Meet”.
For users who rely heavily on video calls for business, having instant access to meetings from their inbox is incredibly convenient. However, if you only use Gmail for personal emails, or if you prefer a dedicated app for video conferencing like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, that bottom toolbar is entirely useless. It consumes valuable screen real estate, distracts from your inbox, and is surprisingly easy to tap by accident. Fortunately, Google allows you to disable this integration and return to a clean, email-only interface.
Disabling Google Meet in the iOS Gmail App
Because the “Meet” tab is technically tied to your specific email address, you must disable it from within your account settings, rather than the general app settings.
- Open the Gmail app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Look for the Menu icon (the three horizontal lines, commonly known as a hamburger menu) in the top-left corner of the search bar and tap it.
- Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the side menu and tap on Settings.
- If you have multiple Google accounts logged into the app, you will see a list of email addresses. Tap on the specific email address you want to configure.
- Scroll down the settings page until you find a section header labelled “Meet”.
- Underneath that header, look for a toggle switch labelled Show the Meet tab for video calling.
- Tap the switch to turn it off. It will change from blue to grey.
Enjoying the Clean Interface
Unlike many app changes that require you to force-quit and restart the software, this change is immediate.
The Gmail app will instantly refresh. The entire bottom toolbar containing the “Mail” and “Meet” buttons will vanish completely, and your inbox will expand downwards to fill the newly reclaimed screen space. If you ever need to join a Google Meet call in the future, you can still simply tap the meeting link inside an email, and it will open in your browser or the dedicated standalone Google Meet app.