What has Google announced for the Meet waiting room?

Google has announced that Workspace administrators can configure a short notice that people see in the Google Meet waiting room before they join a call. The notice can carry an optional link to more detail. It can be set to appear every time, or only when a recording, a transcription or Gemini notes are in progress.

A few details from the announcement, which Google published on 3 November 2026:

  • The notice is off by default.
  • An administrator turns it on for each organisational unit, in the Meet security settings.
  • The extended rollout began on 2 November 2026, so it may take time to show up in your domain.
  • End users do not need to do anything.

That is all the announcement covers: a notice and the settings that control it. What the notice says is up to you.

Who decides which client meetings are recorded?

Nobody decides that for you. If the question has never been put to the team, each person answers it alone. One person turns on Gemini notes to help with the minutes. Another prefers to record nothing.

A waiting-room notice puts that gap on the screen. The client reads a message that someone in your firm had to write, and it needs to match what actually happens in the call.

The decision belongs to whoever runs the business or leads the team. It does not need a long policy document. It needs a short, written answer that everyone on the team can repeat when a client asks.

What should you write down before turning the notice on?

Two or three sentences are enough. They answer three questions:

  1. What do we record or transcribe in client meetings?
  2. What is it for?
  3. Who can a client ask about it?

Here is wording you could adapt, as an illustration: "In this meeting we may record or transcribe the call to write up the minutes. If you have any questions about this, ask [name] or read more at the link."

Adjust it to what your team really does. If the notice says it, the team has to do it.

Keep the notice itself short. If you want to say more, put the detail on a page you control and use it as the optional link.

How do you turn it on, and which Workspace editions include it?

According to Google's announcement, an administrator sets it up in the Meet security settings, for each organisational unit. Because it is off by default and end users do not need to do anything, nothing changes until someone with admin rights acts. If you do not manage Workspace yourself, ask whoever does.

Google lists these editions: Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, Education (Fundamentals, Standard and Plus), Frontline Plus and the Google AI Pro for Education add-on.

Business Starter does not appear in that list. We cannot say whether it is included or excluded, only that the announcement does not mention it. Check your edition with whoever administers Workspace before you plan around the notice.

Google's announcement does not say that it does, and it does not present the notice as a way to meet legal requirements. It describes a message shown before people join.

The notice informs. Whether you also need express consent from participants is a separate question for whoever handles the legal side of your business. We do not give legal advice, so we would not answer it here.

Which client meetings should be recorded, and which should not?

This part is our proposal. The announcement does not cover it.

Start with the kinds of client meeting your team holds, for example first calls and project reviews. For each kind, write one of three answers: recorded, transcribed or neither. Add the reason in a few words, such as "we need minutes". If a meeting has no clear reason for a recording, leave it out.

Then show the draft to one colleague who takes client calls. If they cannot tell from the page what to do before a call, rewrite it.

If you are still choosing where to begin with AI in your team, our article on which task to teach your team first may help.

Where to start

Pick the next client meeting in your diary and answer the three questions above for it. Then ask your Workspace administrator whether your edition includes the notice.

If you would like to go through which of your client meetings are recorded and what clients are told, get in touch. We can look at it together in 30 minutes. It is also a topic we can work through with your team in our training.