How to Add and Assign Meeting Co-Hosts in Google Meet for Collaborative Moderation

Hosting large webinars, corporate town halls, classroom lectures, or multi-team retrospectives on Google Meet can quickly overwhelm a single host. Trying to deliver a presentation while simultaneously admitting attendees from the waiting room, muting noisy microphones, launching polls, and monitoring the chat window distracts from the meeting’s agenda. To ensure smooth moderation, Google Meet allows meeting organizers to add and assign co-hosts.

Co-hosts share essential administrative privileges with the primary meeting host, allowing designated colleagues or teaching assistants to manage participants, control screen-sharing rights, and moderate interactive sessions without transferring primary meeting ownership.

What Privileges Do Co-Hosts Have in Google Meet?

When you designate someone as a co-host, they gain access to Google Meet’s complete suite of Host Management controls:

• Admit or Deny Entry: Accept or reject participants waiting to enter from outside your Google Workspace domain.
• Mute and Remove Participants: Mute disruptive background audio, mute all participants simultaneously, or remove uninvited guests.
• Control Safety Toggles: Lock or unlock screen sharing, public chat messaging, microphone access, and webcam feeds for general attendees.
• Manage Interactive Tools: Start and monitor Breakout Rooms, create and close live Polls, and curate audience Q&A submissions.
• Record and End Meetings: Start or stop cloud recordings (depending on tenant license) and end the call for everyone when the session concludes.

Prerequisites for Adding Co-Hosts

To use the co-host feature in Google Meet:

• Google Workspace Account: Supported across Business Standard/Plus, Enterprise Essentials/Standard/Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Google Workspace for Education editions.
• Host Management Enabled: The primary meeting organizer must ensure Host Management is toggled on within meeting settings.
• Co-Host Limits: Meeting organizers can designate up to 25 co-hosts per Google Meet call.

Method 1: Assigning Co-Hosts Before the Call via Google Calendar

Assigning co-hosts in advance ensures moderators join with full administrative capabilities from the first second of the call:

1. Open Google Calendar and create a new meeting event (or double-click an existing scheduled event).
2. Ensure Google Meet video conferencing is added to the event.
3. Click the Video call options gear icon adjacent to the Join with Google Meet button.
4. In the Meeting options dialogue box, select Host controls in the left menu.
5. Verify that Host management is turned on.
6. Click on the Co-hosts tab.
7. Type the name or email address of the attendees you wish to appoint as co-hosts.
8. Click Save in the dialogue box, then click Save on the Google Calendar event.

Method 2: Promoting Attendees to Co-Host During an Active Call

If you need to grant moderation rights on the fly during an ongoing video conference:

1. While in the active Google Meet meeting, click the People icon in the bottom-right control tray (showing participant count).
2. Locate the attendee you wish to promote in the participant list.
3. Click the three-dot More actions menu icon next to their name.
4. Select Add as co-host from the drop-down menu.
5. The attendee will immediately receive a notification on their screen confirming that they are now a meeting co-host, and the blue host shield icon will appear next to their profile.

Primary Host vs Co-Host Permissions Comparison

Administrative Action	Primary Host (Organiser)	Assigned Co-Host
Admit / Deny Waiting Room Guests	Yes	Yes
Mute / Remove Attendees	Yes	Yes
Toggle Chat & Screen Share Locks	Yes	Yes
Manage Breakout Rooms & Polls	Yes	Yes
Remove Another Co-Host	Yes	No (Only Primary Host can remove co-hosts)
Remove Primary Host	N/A	No (Primary Host cannot be removed by co-hosts)
Receive Post-Call Attendance Reports	Yes (Sent to event organiser)	No (Sent strictly to primary organiser email)

How to Revoke Co-Host Permissions

If a guest speaker has finished their segment or a colleague no longer requires administrative controls:

1. Click the People panel in the bottom-right corner.
2. Click the three-dot menu next to the co-host’s name.
3. Select Remove as co-host.
4. Their status immediately reverts to standard participant without disconnecting them from the meeting.

Troubleshooting Missing Co-Host Options

• Option Greyed Out: If “Add as co-host” does not appear, open Host controls (the shield icon in the bottom-right) and ensure Host management is turned on. When Host management is disabled, everyone operates under peer participant rules.
• External Participants: While participants outside your organization can be promoted to co-hosts during an active meeting, scheduling external co-hosts via Google Calendar requires that your Workspace administrator has enabled external collaboration for Meet in the Admin Console.