Yahoo Finance Alphabet (GOOGL) Boosts Google Meet Efforts With New Feature
Alphabet’s GOOGL division Google is consistently adding innovative features to bolster its video-conferencing software, Google Meet.
Google’s efforts are evident from its latest addition of an AI-powered hand-raising gesture feature to the Google Meet application.
When users raise their hands physically, Meet will detect the gesture and automatically turn on the ‘Raised Hand’ icon.
Reportedly, the underlined feature is primarily for Google Workspace for Education users.
We believe it is expected to deliver an interactive learning experience to the education community, in which most of the teachers or trainers rely on conferencing tools like Meet nowadays.
Notably, the new feature will be rolled out in the coming months, likely boosting Meet's adoption rate in the days ahead.
The latest move bodes well for the company’s growing endeavors to bolster Google Workspace for Education.
Alphabet Inc. Price and Consensus
Alphabet Inc. price-consensus-chart | Alphabet Inc. Quote
Growing Google Meet Initiatives
Besides the latest effort, Google recently collaborated with Zoom Video Communications ZM to roll out video-conferencing device interoperability for Google Meet with Zoom.
Per the partnership terms, users can join Zoom Meetings from Google Meet hardware devices or join Google Meet meetings from Zoom Rooms.
In addition, Google added a 360-degree background feature Google Meet, which will let users customize their video feed while attending meetings.
Google introduced emoji reactions to Meet. The reactions appear as a small badge in the sender’s video tile. The feature aims to help participants engage in meetings without interrupting the speaker.
Google rolled out a Google Meet shortcut feature for the desktop version. The capability allows users to unmute themselves by holding down the space bar. Users can mute themselves by releasing the space bar, which helps users stay muted when they forget to mute themselves after unmuting.
Efforts to Bolster Google Workspace
With the growing Google Meet initiatives, Google is consistently adding strength to the Google Workspace, consisting of Gmail, Meet, Drive, Docs, Voice and more.
In addition to the hand-raise gesture feature on Meet, the company is currently making enhancements in its Docs, Slides and Classroom applications to provide a better experience for the education world through Google Workspace for Education.
Apart from education efforts, the company recently started rolling out a large-screen redesign of the Google Drive app, especially for tablet displays.
Notably, the new look for Google Drive on Android tablets features a side-mounted navigation rail instead of the bottom navigation bar to make it easier for users to see details for a selected file.
Google added a suspected spam caller feature to Google Voice, letting users view the suspected spam caller on the call screen and history list. They can also confirm a suspected spam call and send the number to the spam folder.
These initiatives will continue to help Google gain momentum across organizations demanding productivity and collaboration tools, which will bolster the adoption rate of Google Workspace and contribute positively to the performance of the Google Cloud segment.
We believe strengthening Google Cloud’s performance is likely to contribute generously to Alphabet’s overall performance in the near term, which, in turn, is expected to aid Alphabet in winning investors’ confidence in the near term.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s total revenue is pegged at $56.95 billion, indicating growth of 2% from the year-ago reported figure.
Coming to the price performance, GOOGL has lost 27.7% compared with the industry’s decline of 26%.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Alphabet carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are Arista Networks ANET and Analog Devices ADI. While Arista Networks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Analog Devices carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Arista Networks shares have gained 20.5% in the past year. The long-term earnings growth rate for ANET is currently projected at 14.17%.
Analog Devices shares have gained 10.5% in the past year. The long-term earnings growth rate for ADI is currently projected at 12.25%.
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