Google Meet adds gesture recognition to video calls

Google Meet can now recognize when your physical hand is raised in front of the camera during group video calls and alert the host. This means you don’t need to click the “raise hand” button on the screen and accidentally send a clapping emoji to everyone on the call (I speak from experience).

For this to work, you will need to enable it in your Google Meet settings by going to More options > Reactions > Raise hand gesture. Google says your camera will need to be on and your hand will need to be visible to the camera, away from your face and body, as shown in the video above.

If you are the active speaker, gesture detection will not trigger. However, it will be reactivated when you no longer speak, so you can ask another question.

The feature is now rolling out to Google Workspace for Business and Education.