Participants in a meeting can work collaboratively on a Google Meet Add-on activity. When a collaborative activity starts, all participants in the meeting receive a notification that the activity is ongoing.
This notification is adapted to the availability and installation status of the add-on:
If the participant has the add-on installed: They can join the activity.
If the participant doesn't have the add-on installed: They're directed to install the add-on.
If the add-on isn't available for the participant's platform: They're informed that they can't join the activity using their current device.
When a user joins the activity they will load their own iframes with your add-on content. You can customize whether or not new joiners should open the collaborative activity in the main stage or side panel.
Start the collaboration
An activity is started by calling the
startCollaboration
method, which uses a CollaborationStartingState
interface.
Step 1 (Optional): The add-on sets the collaboration starting state
The
MeetAddonClient.setCollaborationStartingState
sets or updates information about the initial state of the
add-on that's used when the participant accepts the
invitation to collaborate.
The add-on can set the
CollaborationStartingState
using the Meet Add-ons SDK anytime before or during the collaboration.
Once the add-on activity has started, the other meeting
participants use the CollaborationStartingState
to initialize their
add-on.
For details and code samples on how to set the CollaborationStartingState
, see
Use the collaboration starting
state.
Step 2: The add-on starts the activity
The activity begins when the add-on calls the
startCollaboration
method on the
MeetSidePanelClient
.
Make sure to call the startCollaboration
method in your add-on once the user
completes the content selection and is ready to start the collaboration.
The following code sample shows how to call the startCollaboration
method:
sidePanelClient.startCollaboration({
mainStageUrl: "https://app.example.com/mainstage",
additionalData: JSON.stringify({
// State to send to participants.
})
});
When
startCollaboration
is invoked, Meet performs the following actions:
For other participants: Meet shows a notification that the activity is ongoing.
For the initiator: If a main stage URL was specified in the
CollaborationStartingState
, Meet opens the main stage using the URL from theCollaborationStartingState
.
Share add-on state in a collaboration
When a user joins the collaboration, they will load your
add-on into the main stage or side panel depending on
the CollaborationStartingState
.
With the additionalData
property, you can share initial data (also referred to
as state) with users joining the collaboration. You might also want to
share state between users while they interact with your
add-on.
You can share state in several ways:
- Handle it yourself with your own synchronization mechanisms.
- Use the Meet Live Sharing SDK, which is a convenient and fast way to share arbitrary data between users.