Disabling Changing Background in Google Meet: A Solution for Productive Online Learning

In this blog post, we will explore a solution to prevent students from changing their background in Google Meet, as this feature can often lead to distractions and waste valuable class time. Specifically designed for Google Workspace for Education Administrators, this article aims to address the issue and provide a practical solution to enhance online learning experiences.

The Impact of Virtual Backgrounds in Google Meet

Google introduced the virtual background feature to Google Meet in October 2020, allowing users to replace their messy room backgrounds with beautiful images from Google's hand-picked library. However, since its launch, many young students have started playing with this feature during online classes, leading to distractions and a loss of focus during lectures. Moreover, the background effects consume computing and network resources, negatively impacting device performance and school networks.

Google Meet Backgrounds Control Limitations

Although Google later introduced a backgrounds admin control, the setting only applies to meeting organizers, not individual participants. This means that whether students can use the virtual backgrounds depends on the meeting organizer's organizational unit (OU) background admin setting, rather than the students' OU background admin setting. This limitation prevents enabling virtual backgrounds for teacher-to-teacher meetings while disabling them for teacher-to-student meetings.

The Solution: Safe Doc Chrome Extension

To address this issue effectively, the Safe Doc chrome extension offers a simple solution. If your school has not yet installed Safe Doc, you can start a 30-day trial today.

Disabling Virtual Backgrounds with Safe Doc

Safe Doc ensures that students cannot access the virtual background feature by removing the "change background" buttons and menu items.

1. Disabling Background Changes in the Waiting Room: In the Google Meet waiting room, Safe Doc removes the change background button along with the change background menu found in the three-dot menu. This ensures that students cannot modify their background settings before joining the meeting.

2. Disabling Background Changes in the Meeting Session: During the Google Meet session, the change background menu item is usually located on the right side of the bottom toolbar's three-dot menu. Safe Doc removes this option, ensuring that students cannot change their backgrounds during the meeting.

To implement this solution effectively, follow these steps:

1. Deploy Safe Doc to Students' Chrome Browsers: Ensure that the Safe Doc chrome extension is deployed to all students' Chrome browsers. This ensures that the extension is active and ready to enforce policy settings.

2. Configure Safe Doc Policy: Read the Safe Doc Configuration guide and familiarize yourself with the extension's policy settings.

3. Block Meet Background Changes: Add and set the policy "BlockMeetChangeBackground" to "true" in the Safe Doc extension policy configuration. Save the policy configuration to apply the changes.

Limitations of Safe Doc

It's important to note the following limitation of Safe Doc:

• Existing Background Effects: Safe Doc cannot revert the background effects if students have already made changes before the Safe Doc policy is applied. It is recommended to apply the policy before students have the chance to modify their backgrounds.

Conclusion

Disabling the option to change backgrounds in Google Meet can significantly improve online learning environments, reducing distractions and keeping students focused on the content being presented. The Safe Doc chrome extension offers a reliable solution for administrators to enforce this restriction, ensuring that virtual backgrounds do not interfere with the learning process. By implementing Safe Doc and following the outlined steps, education administrators can create a more productive and focused online learning experience for students.

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