It has been six years since the COVID-19 pandemic. It caused huge economic and social disruptions around the world, changing people’s lives forever. And then there were online meeting apps, which saw a huge surge in their usage during the pandemic. Many companies around the world switched to a hybrid mode of work, which is a mix of in-person collaboration and remote work.
Of course, Google Meet is one of the major video communication services that gained popularity because companies adopted a new flexible work model. Google Meet’s being one of the top online meeting tools is also due to the improvements the company introduced to the service over the years. The Mountain View tech giant has recently announced one more change on Google Meet.
Google will introduce a major change to the default setting for downloading Meet recordings
Google Meet currently doesn’t allow meeting participants to download or copy video recordings by default. For any meeting owners who don’t want viewers to download the meeting recordings, the current default behavior perfectly aligns with your needs, and you don’t need to change anything.
However, Google is planning to change this in the next few weeks. Google will change the default for video recordings, requiring meeting owners to manually restrict the download of meeting recordings. This change will only impact new recordings and not the existing ones.
If you don’t want viewers to be able to download or copy meeting recordings, you will need to uncheck Let Users download and copy Meet Recordings option in the Admin console.
When you restrict downloads of meeting recordings, it will also restrict Ask Gemini for viewers, just like in the current scenario. The Ask Gemini functionality will be available only after owners allow downloads.
Google has no plans to make this change with immediate effect. In its official Workspace Updates, it confirmed that the change in default for meeting recordings will start rolling out on April 30, 2026. It’ll be a gradual rollout and will take up to 15 days to become available for everyone.
It’s also worth noting that the new rule for meeting recordings in Google Meet is available only for people subscribed to the following plans:
Business: Business Plus and Business Standard
Enterprise: Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Plus, Enterprise Standard, and Enterprise Starter
Education: Education Plus and the Teaching and Learning Upgrade
If you are a subscriber to any of the above plans, you have to uncheck “Let Users download and copy Meet Recordings” from the Meet video settings before April 30, 2026.
