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Google Meet iOS #meet #Google #ios

Steve S.
 

Hi Alan 
I agree that Google Meet is wonderful and free with ASR captioning. It does lac a bit with functionality or perhaps we all need more training, I’m not sure. For example I don’t believe it is easy , or possible, to have cohosts for virtual meetings, although I haven’t researched it.
As far as Apple goes and Google Meet, I believe if you have a Gmail email address it works for all Apple devices no matter the age. So perhaps that’s the workaround and also Google wanting a little influence! 
Be well 
Steve

On Sun, Sep 20, 2020 at 12:28 AM Alan Katsura, Moderator, CA Diablo Valley Chapter <akatsura@...> wrote:
If you are an Apple mobile device user (iPhone, iPad), you may have encountered problems accessing Google Meet if you have an older device. 

Google is nice enough to release Meet for all of us to use for free. Why is this important? Now there is access to a video conferencing platform that uses automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology for captioning without relying on add-ons. While not as full-featured as Zoom, it is simple to use. Yea, to Google for their efforts in making the world a little more accessible for people with hearing loss. Boo to Apple for limiting access to this technology to mobile devices with iOS 12.0 and newer. 

My neighbor was having problems connecting her iPad to a Meet invitation sent to her by her daughter-in-law. I figured I might be able to duplicate her issue and solve her problem. I have an iPad (Gen 4) with an iOS of 10.3.4. I created a Meet on my PC laptop and found out that:





  1. I knew there was a reason I was not too fond of Apple products


  2. the iPad will not connect to Meet through the browser - it referred me to the App Store to download the Google Meet app


  3. the Google Meet app requires iOS 12 or newer


  4. you cannot update 4th generation iPads to iOS 12 or newer






I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. After spending hundreds of dollars on the project, I found out at the completion that access is limited to - guess what - mobile devices with iOS 12 or newer. Everything worked fine throughout the development process until it went live on the server.  While testing locally, access wasn't an issue, only when the software was uploaded to its server. It was something I had never thought of doing, never done anything like it, thought it would be useful when completed, and learned a lot of lessons from that project. 




If you know this to be untrue, please post the workaround here.

Take care and stay safe
--  
Alan Katsura
Moderator HLAA Tech Group









--
Steven Shugarts
cell (484) 680-1123
Alan Katsura, Moderator, CA Diablo Valley Chapter
 

Steve is referring to a message I posted earlier that I was asked to modify the contents. The issue I encountered was an older iPad (iOS 10.3.4 Gen 4) accessing Google Meet. I tried accessing Meet through the browser and was blocked from accessing Meet with a message directing me to download the app. When I tried to download the app, I received another message stating that the app only works for mobile devices iOS 12 or newer. Research indicates that Apple does not allow one to update from iOS10 to 12.

For those who are unfamiliar with Google Meet, shortly after the pandemic gathered momentum, Google separated Meet from its business suite and made it available for free. It may be a coincident, but its release corressponded with an online petition created by Shari Eberts urging video conference platforms for the inclusion of captioning. Within a few days, the petition gathered over 40,000 signatures, and within weeks Google release Meet to everyone.

You do have to have a Google account to create a meeting. The nice thing about Meet is its simplicity compared to the feature-ladden Zoom and the inclusion of automatic speech recognition (ASR) captioning. You can receive captioning within the program without having to resort to additional software or devices. 

Take care, everyone, and stay safe
--
Alan Katsura
Moderator HLAA Tech Group
Rich Osborne
 

Alan, I am so very impressed by the way you explained this difficult, complex topic. I am inspired to a better job explaining tech as a result of your work.

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