With online course delivery, Google Meet has become a key piece of technology at CUE. As the number of users and their varied uses increase, a number of enhancements have been identified for Google Meet. These enhancements have been developed in various Chrome Extensions to modify or add to the functionality of Google Meet in a desktop web browser.
In reviewing an extension, we look for a few key things:
- A privacy policy is published
- The permissions requested appear to be justifiable
- Source code is made available
- Popularity and acceptance in the Chrome Store
The following Google Chrome Extensions have undergone a basic review process and appear to be non-malicious (this should not be taken as an endorsement or a recommendation to install the extension):
Popular Extensions meeting review requirements:
- Google Meet Grid View [no privacy policy] - Arranges all participants in a Google Meet session in a grid view layout instead of one of the default layouts. Regarding the lack of a privacy policy, they state, "This extension does not track any user data, and therefore does not have a detailed privacy policy." It only asks for permissions to "Read and change your data on meet.google.com" which is entirely reasonable.
- Nod - Reactions for Google Meet [privacy policy] - Adds simple emoji reactions in a Google Meet session for muted participants.
Other Extensions that have been reviewed:
Google Meet Enhancement Suite - Grid & more [privacy policy] - Provided a variety of functionality including grid view.No longer available in the Chrome Store.Google Meet Attendance [no privacy policy] - An extension which provides a way to record attendance in a Google Meet session.Review not yet passed due to lack of privacy policy and questionable requirement to access browser history
Please note:
- Install the extensions using the links above to avoid the risk of being redirected to malicious extensions posing falsely as any of the above.
- The features provided by these extensions may overlap or conflict. Please only install the extensions that offer features you require.
Always remember to review the extension's privacy policy carefully, and ensure that the terms of the policy are compatible with your needs. Please also remember that responsibility for stewardship of CUE information lies with each user, so extensions should be installed with care. If any of these extensions are found, in future, to be suspicious or malicious, we will provide additional information via updates to this page.