Use a Meet Add-on

This guide provides an overview of how people start and work with a Google Meet Add-on.

Start an add-on from the Activities panel

From a Google Meet call, a user can click the Activities button. This brings up the Activities panel, which shows a list of built-in Meet features and any add-ons the user has installed. Clicking on an icon launches the side panel view of the add-on.

The Google Meet Add-ons SDK main stage and side panel.
Figure 1. The Google Meet Add-ons SDK main stage and side panel.

Collaborate with other users

To allow users to collaborate together, the add-on must set the CollaborationStartingState. For more information, see Collaborate using a Meet Add-on.

After opening an add-on side panel view with the CollaborationStartingState set, users can start working together by clicking Start activity.

For example, an add-on might want to allow users to collaborate on a document, but the add-on doesn't know which document. In this case, the document should be selected from the side panel view. After ensuring the document can be shared with others, the add-on can set CollaborationStartingState with other necessary document identifiers.

Starting an activity so others can collaborate.
Figure 2. The start activity button.

Collaborate in the main stage

Collaborative activities can be done in the side panel or the main stage. If a mainStageUrl is listed in the add-on manifest, clicking the Start activity button automatically opens the add-on in the main stage and starts the collaboration. If no mainStageUrl is listed in the add-on manifest, clicking the Start activity button only starts the collaboration.

Once the main stage is open, an add-on might choose to close the side panel by calling MeetMainStageClient.unloadSidePanel. To extend the earlier example, a side panel that chooses a document may no longer be relevant and can be closed.

To re-open the side panel view, the add-on can call MeetMainStageClient.loadSidePanel. For example, an add-on that creates user polls might reopen the side panel to display question response rates.

Start an add-on from screen sharing

Users can start add-ons while screen sharing. If a user is screen sharing a website that has an add-on, that website can promote its add-on to the user by using the MeetAddonScreenshare.exposeToMeetWhenScreensharing method. This shows the user a notification banner in the Meet call, prompting the user to either install or start the add-on. For more information, see Promote an add-on to users through screen sharing.

Since additional information can be supplied to the add-on starting state from the website the user is screen sharing, the add-on can skip the side panel and start the collaboration in the main stage immediately after launching. If the add-on needs to perform additional steps, like changing permissions on a document to share, the add-on can launch into the side panel and follow the flow described in Collaborate with other users.