Hybrid meetings—where some participants are gathered together in a physical conference room while others dial in remotely—often create an imbalanced experience. Remote workers struggle to see the whiteboard, and physical attendees struggle to share their laptop screens without causing terrible audio feedback loops.
Google solved this problem with Companion Mode. This feature allows people sitting inside a physical conference room to join the Google Meet call on their personal laptops as a “second screen,” without turning on their microphones or speakers, thereby preventing audio echoes while unlocking interactive features.
Why Use Companion Mode?
If you are already sitting in a room with a large screen displaying the Google Meet call, you should use Companion Mode on your personal laptop to:
- Share your screen: Present a slideshow or document from your laptop to the remote participants without taking over the main room’s hardware.
- Access the Chat: Read and send messages in the Meet chat box, which is often difficult to read on a distant conference room TV.
- Participate in Polls and Q&A: Vote on interactive elements using your own keyboard.
- Turn on your personal camera: Provide remote workers with a clear, close-up view of your face instead of a wide-angle shot of the entire conference room.
How to Join Using Companion Mode
You should join using Companion Mode before the meeting starts, or while you are sitting in the room.
- Open Google Chrome on your laptop and navigate to the Google Meet meeting link (or click the link from your Google Calendar invitation).
- You will arrive at the standard “Ready to join?” waiting room screen.
- Do not click the standard “Join now” button.
- Instead, look below the video preview window. Click the button labelled Use Companion mode.
Your laptop will immediately enter the meeting. However, it will behave differently than a normal connection.
How Companion Mode Behaves
When you join using Companion Mode, Google Meet automatically applies several strict restrictions to your laptop to prevent interference with the main conference room hardware:
- Your microphone is permanently disabled. The system assumes you will speak using the conference room’s shared microphone. You cannot accidentally unmute your laptop and cause a high-pitched feedback loop.
- Your speakers are permanently disabled. You will not hear any audio through your laptop; you must listen through the conference room speakers.
- You are hidden from the main grid. Your laptop’s video feed (if you choose to turn on your webcam) is placed in a separate section of the screen for remote participants, ensuring you do not clutter the primary video grid.
Presenting Your Screen in Companion Mode
The most common use case for Companion Mode is screen sharing. If you need to present a spreadsheet to the remote team:
- While in Companion Mode on your laptop, click the Present now icon (a square with an upward arrow) at the bottom of the screen.
- Choose whether to share a single Chrome tab, a specific window, or your entire screen.
- Click Share.
Your laptop’s screen will instantly appear on the conference room TV and on the screens of all remote participants. You can control the presentation directly from your laptop keyboard while speaking into the room’s main microphone.