Products · Product
Google Meet
Raised as a usability problem by 118 people on Hacker News over 13 years (2014–2026), in 82 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Cannot mute audio in one meeting while staying in anotherUnreviewed
20142026- Sound quality is horrible during meetings, making the service unusable2026-06-10
- Joins the meeting muted unexpectedly, and the problem goes away only when rejoining2023-03-06
- Meet repeatedly fails to recognise the user's microphone, forcing manual workarounds2021-04-15
Requires a Google account to join, which strangers may lackUnreviewed
20142026- Requires a Google account to join, which is hard for strangers2024-05-26
- Google makes its products like Meet and Drive hard to use outside Gmail2021-07-31
- Requiring a Google account to join makes calls too hard to get into2020-04-30
Overlapping chat and calling apps make it unclear which to useUnreviewed
20142026- Too many overlapping Google chat and video apps make it confusing which to use2024-05-27
- Too many confusingly overlapping Google chat and calling apps (Hangouts, Chat, Talk, Duo, Allo)2020-12-19
- Google's chat, meet, and hangouts features are confusing and scattered across apps2020-11-22
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Screen sharing is clunky, with reactions and tiling harder than in Zoom2026-10-29
- Google gets confused and blocks access to invites sent to a custom domain address2026-07-21
- Feels slow to interact with on Google Meet and ClickUp2026-06-16
- Sound quality is horrible during meetings, making the service unusable2026-06-10
- Can't see other participants while presenting outside Chrome; screen sharing resizes awkwardly2026-01-22
- AI suggestion popups interrupt every window focus change and can't be turned off2025-07-16
- Icon-only controls make it hard to recognise the Share Screen button2025-07-06
- Google Meet fails to access audio in Firefox, unlike other websites2025-03-01
- Users struggle to find how to share screen, needing repeated teaching2025-02-23
- Google Meet is unusable on Firefox with memory usage spikes2024-08-28
- Hiding features behind buttons and menus adds noticeable delay to actions2024-07-06
- Camera takes several seconds to initialize when joining a call2024-05-27
- Too many overlapping Google chat and video apps make it confusing which to use2024-05-27
- Requires a Google account to join, which is hard for strangers2024-05-26
- Choosing audio and video sources requires going through settings panels, taking four taps2024-05-26
- Can't easily go full screen, making it unusable for pairing2024-05-26
- User experience is painful to use every day2024-05-26
- Slow on some browsers; join options unclear; presentations shown too small2024-05-26
- Can't watch screen share on one display while chat and video sit on another2024-05-26
- Remove Background control disappears when selected background is scrolled out of view2024-04-29
- Must dismiss the same 4-5 'Got it' feature popups on every call2023-12-08
- Video freezes on Firefox, which the commenter attributes to deliberate blocking2023-12-05
- Feature popups reappear on every call with no way to stop them2023-11-28
- Shared code appears blurred and red font takes seconds to become clear2023-08-31
- Cannot hide the UI to make a shared screen fullscreen2023-08-19
- Tile count must be set manually in a buried options dialog, and no way to page through participants2023-08-13
- Google Meet keeps breaking on Firefox, forcing the team to switch to Slack huddles2023-08-11
- Phone browsers force redirect to the app and users are pushed to log in2023-08-08
- Settings menu is very annoying to use; window layout breaks when small2023-08-08
- Auto-added links make people ignore Meet links, thinking they aren't real meetings2023-08-07
- Google services show errors or break for Firefox users2023-08-03
- Flying emoji reactions are distracting and hard to avoid; the hide setting is buried2023-05-16
- Joins the meeting muted unexpectedly, and the problem goes away only when rejoining2023-03-06
- Admission prompt blocks muting and camera controls until host decides2023-02-13
- Can choose input device but not output, so user thinks headphones are broken2023-01-14
- Logout button hidden, only switch-user option offered, requiring a username on shared browsers2022-12-22
- Cannot choose non-default audio output device during Google Meet calls in Firefox2022-09-30
- Machine slows to a crawl during calls with more than three people2022-09-22
- Calling from Gmail was replaced by sending email invitations, adding steps to start calls2022-09-07
- Chat tab cannot be removed easily because the option is buried deep in settings2022-08-05
- Calling friends requires creating a meeting, sending a link, and waiting, unlike a direct call button2022-08-05
- Confusing rebranding and merging leaves users unsure which app is which2022-08-05
- Chat-to-video functionality is hidden after being pushed to a different app2022-08-04
- Two apps share the Google Meet name, so users can't tell which to install2022-08-04
- Old Meet's action bar performed awfully, extremely slow to interact with in Firefox2022-05-20
- Calling a contact now requires emailing a link instead of starting a call directly2022-02-08
- Cannot overlay other content on presented slides; presenter gets displaced when another person presents2022-02-06
- Shared content gets minimized and people must manually pin the thumbnail to see it2022-02-05
- Forces camera and microphone on; user must refuse both and enable voice-only after joining2021-12-19
- Shared screen freezes silently with no message to sharer or participants2021-12-19