Introduction

This KB will discuss how Google Meet works within Virtual Computer Services (VCS), some of the limitations, and drawbacks of using it within VCS.

Applicability

This article will apply to anyone supporting or using Google Meet inside of VCS.

Details

The Google Meet platform for video calls runs within a web browser rather than it's own software application. Because of this, there are limited Audio & Video optimizations that can be applied to Google Meet meetings. Unlike Zoom or Microsoft Teams, which either have a separate plugin that can be installed, or native optimizations within Citrix Workspace App, no such optimizations exist for Google Meet. This means that using Google Meet through VCS will not provide an optimal user experience, or may present inconsistent behavior when interacting with audio or video devices.  

Common issues found with Google Meet in VCS:

• Webcam only showing  a black screen
• Delayed/garbled audio
• Low resolution video
• Meeting freezes or delayed when showing other participants video.

For these reasons, IST recommends NOT using Google Meet inside of VCS, as there will likely be a diminished user experience, or will not work as expected. Instead the recommended way, is to run your meeting on your physical endpoint in the web browser. 

Recommended method

When using your physical device to host or join a meeting, you can still have VCS running, since VCS is basically running inside of an application. 

• If you have VCS spanned across two (or more) monitors, then you can either:
  • Leave it spanned across both displays, and minimize/restore VCS as necessary throughout the meeting. Clicking Home in the Citrix toolbar will minimize VCS.
    
    
    
  • Convert VCS into Windowed mode, and move it onto a single display, and have the meeting open on the screen that is not showing VCS.
    
    
    
• Having more than one monitor is handy, but not required. It just means that you may need to flip between your meeting and your VCS session if working from a single monitor. You would have the same challenges if Google Meet was running inside VCS or not.  
  
  
  
• If you need to present or share your screen, you can still present the VCS window or your entire monitor (more applicable if using multiple monitors) as shown below. You can change the type of content you are sharing by clicking on the Window or Entire Screen tab along the top. When you are sharing just a Window, you can see the VCS icon as an item to share.
   

Using Google Meet inside VCS

This method is unsupported by IST and no further troubleshooting will be provided, since there is no official support on the software platforms or through the software developers. 

The troubleshooting steps in this section are to be considered best effort based on IST's testing. 

1) Change the way your webcam is used within VCS, by switching it to Generic mode. You can find this drop down menu from the little back box at the top of your VCS session.

Find your webcam in the list, you can hover over the name (ex. Logitech Inc. Logitech...) to verify you have the right device. Just below the name, it shows the current mode that USB device is using, and on the right side, is a button you can click to switch to generic. Note: This may affect other video meeting platforms like Zoom or MS Teams, and lead to a negative experience if you don't switch it back, since generic mode disconnects the webcam from your physical computer, and "moves" it into the VCS session. This will then make the webcam unavailable when using Zoom or MS Teams until you switch it back. It may also have problems switching back and forth between Optimized and Generic mode if Windows determines that the webcam is still in use, and in some cases you may find you may need to do a combination of unplugging the webcam, restarting your VCS session, restarting your physical computer, or both. It is also advisable to switch the mode prior to joining your meeting.

By making this change, testing has shown that the video should work a bit more consistently, however sometimes getting the video to show up at all isn't always consistent, depending on if the Webcam can be "moved" into the VCS session seamlessly or if the physical device thinks it is still in use. Audio does not seem to improve when making this same change, and often has extra latency between seeing a person talk, and hearing what they are saying, so it is advised to leave your audio device as is. If you use your webcam as your microphone, then likely it'll suffer from the same latency issues, since the webcam is now going over the generic channel.