Companion mode lets you join a Google Meet on a second device with your mic and speaker switched off, so you can use the meeting’s interactive features — chat, polls, screen sharing, hand-raising — without causing audio echo. It’s especially useful in hybrid meetings and conference rooms. Here’s when and how to use it.
What companion mode is for
In a hybrid meeting, the room usually has one main device handling audio and video. If everyone in the room also joined normally on their laptops, you’d get painful echo and feedback. Companion mode solves this: you join on your own device for the interactive parts — sharing your screen, sending chat, voting in polls, raising your hand — while audio stays on the room’s main system. Remote attendees see you as an individual participant.
When to use it
Use companion mode whenever you’re physically in a room with a shared Meet device but still want your own controls — to present from your laptop, follow the chat, or be counted as a named participant. It’s also handy when you want a second screen for the participant list or captions while your main device shows the speaker. Outside a room, a normal join is simpler.
Capturing a hybrid meeting
Hybrid meetings are some of the hardest to take notes in, because attention is split between the room and the screen. MeetingJuice captures the Google Meet transcript and produces an AI summary with action items, so no one in the room has to be the scribe — everyone, in-room or remote, gets the same accurate record afterwards.
