How to Mute a Specific Participant in a Google Meet Call

Background noise is one of the biggest disruptions during a video conference. Whether it is a barking dog, a loud keyboard, or construction noise, a single unmuted microphone can ruin a Google Meet call for everyone. If you are hosting a meeting, you have the power to quickly silence disruptive participants.

How to Mute Someone in Google Meet

To mute another participant, you must be the Meeting Host or a designated Co-Host. Standard participants cannot mute each other.

1. While in the active Google Meet call, look at the bottom-right corner of the screen and click on the People icon (it looks like a silhouette of two people).
2. A side panel will open displaying a list of everyone currently in the meeting.
3. Scroll through the list to find the person causing the background noise. You will usually see three animated blue dots next to their microphone icon if they are actively making noise.
4. Click the three vertical dots next to their name.
5. Select Mute from the dropdown menu.

Alternatively, if you can see their video feed on the main grid, you can simply hover your mouse over their video tile, click the three vertical dots that appear, and select Mute.

Important Rules About Muting

Google Meet has strict privacy policies regarding microphone control. Because of these rules, there are two critical things you need to know:

• You cannot unmute them: Once you mute a participant, you do not have the power to turn their microphone back on. The participant will receive a notification on their screen that they have been muted by the host, and they will need to manually click the unmute button themselves to speak again.
• Muting applies to everyone: When you mute someone, they are muted for the entire meeting. You cannot mute someone just for yourself; if you silence them, no one else in the meeting will be able to hear them either.

If a meeting has spiraled out of control and multiple people are talking or causing feedback, hosts can also click the Mute All button at the top of the People panel to instantly silence every participant at once.