How to Share Audio in Google Meet

Working from the comfort of your home has a lot of benefits, especially when you get to use amazing conferencing apps like Google Meet. However, when you share your screen, you’ll notice that the audio feature might be missing.

For now, Google Meet hasn’t come up with an ideal solution, but there are a couple of workarounds you can try. In this article, you’ll learn all about the various options available. The next time you start a meeting with a YouTube clip, everyone will be able to hear it.

Google Presentations with PC Sound

Preparing for an online work meeting is slightly different from doing it in the office, mainly because you have to ensure all the technical prerequisites are in order. If you’re a Windows user, you can ensure that the instructional video you’ve prepared has the accompanying audio or share other videos, animations, gifs, music, and more in your meetings.

Currently, you have three options. You can change the microphone settings in Windows 10 and Google Meets or use the “Present” option in Google Meets on Chrome. The “Present a Chrome tab” feature was “fully” released in May of 2021. Here are your options.

Option 1: Adjust Microphone Settings to Share Audio in Google Meet

Here’s how to adjust your microphone settings in Windows 10.

1. Go to your Windows 10 “Start” Menu.
   
2. Next, open “Settings.”
   
3. Then, go to “System -> Sound.”
   
4. Now, click “Manage sound devices.”
   
5. Under “Input devices,” make sure that you enable the “Stereo Mix” option.
   
6. Also, make sure that you enable the Microphone feature that’s just under the “Stereo Mix Option.”
   
7. Once you’re presenting to everyone using Google Meets, click on “Settings” (three vertical dots in the bottom right corner).
   
8. Under the “Audio” tab, change your default microphone to “Stereo Mix.”
   
9. Go to the clip you want to present and hit “Play.”
   

After completing the above steps, the participants in the meeting won’t hear your voice because you set the studio for PC sounds. Therefore, ensure you let everyone know that’s going to happen before you make the changes. Otherwise, the scenario might create confusion.

After playing the audio you want, you can go back and switch the setting to your default microphone. Going from one microphone setting to another might not be the ideal solution, but it’s the only one available at the moment.

Option 2: Use “Present a Chrome” Tab to Share Audio in Google Meet

The official feed from the Google Workspace team shows that the “Present…” option is available for G Suite users, but we confirmed that it also works for general Google accounts. The feature only displays the tab you currently selected. However, a notification appears when you switch to a new one, asking if you want to switch to the current tab. Here’s how to use the “Present a Chrome tab” function.

1. Click on the “People” icon in the top-right section to open more options.
   
2. Select “Present now,” then choose “A tab” from the listed options.
   
3. Click on the tab you want to present from the list that displays on your screen, then click “Share.”
   
4. A notification displays letting you know that you are currently sharing a tab.
   
5. Switch to a new tab if needed. A prompt displays at the top asking if you want to share this tab instead or stop. Select “Stop” to end the presentation or choose “Share this tab instead” to make the switch. You can also click on the currently presented tab (shows a blue rectangle) to ignore the prompt if you want to keep the same tab running.
   
6. To close your presentation, click “Stop presenting” in the main window, the Windows presentation notification, or “You are presenting -> Stop presenting” from the bottom-right corner of your main window.
   

Option 3: Use Another Device to Share Audio in Google Meet

Aside from changing your microphone settings in Windows 10 and Google Meets, it’s also possible to use your smartphone device simultaneously by using the “Use a phone for audio” feature. Therefore, you can talk at the same time as presenting the video or images from your PC. However, using your phone for audio in Meets is currently limited to Google Workspace hosts only. It also mutes the PC’s audio while on the call.

How to Mute Participants on Google Meet

If you’re planning on sharing audio during your Google Meet presentation, you’re probably worried about too much noise or chatter. It would be nice if a “Mute All” button existed to click during active audio sharing.

Fortunately, Google Meet has just started introducing an option to mute everyone as of May 2021 by providing it to Google Meet hosts in Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals and Education Plus domains. All other users have to wait until further notice. For businesses and general users, it doesn’t mean all is lost. You can attempt to use a third-party browser add-on, or you can mute Google Meet participants individually with just a few clicks.

Google Meet: Mute Everyone using Individual Selection

The most guaranteed way to mute everyone during your Google Meet presentation is to mute each participant, one by one unless you can use “Mute All.” Here’s how to mute everyone individually.

1. While you’re presenting, go to the “People” icon in the top right corner of the Google Meet window.
2. On the list of participants, select a name you want to mute.
3. You will have three icons show up, click on the middle one (“microphone icon”).
4. You will be asked to confirm if you want to mute this participant. Press “Mute.”

Now, this person’s microphone will get turned off. You can repeat the process as many times as you need if you want to mute everyone.

Google Meet: Mute Everyone using the “Mute all” Feature

When you use Google Meet for educational purposes, with many students participating, it’s helpful to know how to mute any unnecessary noise, primarily since teachers often use audio and video clips in classes. For those using Meet for Education Plus domains or Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals (as previously mentioned), you’re in luck. Feel free to mute everyone in one swoop. Just don’t forget that you cannot unmute. So, include something in your presentation to let participants know they can unmute their microphones as needed! Here’s how to mute everyone on Google Meet.

1. During the Google Meet session, click on “People” from the top-right session menu.
   
2. Select “Mute all.”
   
3. The mute icon will switch from black to color to represent the active status, and the text will change to “All muted.”
   

Google Meet: Mute for Listening, Then Unmute for Talking

Sometimes it’s hard not to want to jump in with comments, even when it’s not the right moment. If you’re the one sharing the audio, you want everyone to hear it first. Perhaps you’ll even have to resort to muting participants, especially if you’re dealing with students.

Second, until Google Meet figures out a better way for audio sharing, you can always switch from one microphone setting to another, as discussed above or use your smartphone to supply the audio. It’s not perfect, but it does the job.

Fortunately, Google Meet has come a long way in audio capabilities, but there’s definitely room for improvement.

Did you have success adding audio to your Google Meet? Do you know of other ways to share audio? Share your thoughts with the community in the comments below.