Learn about huddles in Google Chat

Important: Only users with a work account can access huddles in Chat, which aren't available for personal or school accounts.

You can start a huddle instantly as a voice chat from a 1:1 conversation, group conversation, or space in Google Chat without ringing.
You can share your screen or turn on your camera in a huddle.
You can also choose to start a video meeting or call someone directly from Chat or Gmail. Learn more about how to start a video meeting or call someone.

Start a huddle in Chat

On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- In Gmail: On the left, click Chat.
Open a direct message or space.
At the top right, click the dropdown and then click Huddles .
To end the call, click End call Call end icon.

Tips:

If participants are in a huddle, it remains active.
Someone can join a huddle anytime through a huddle invitation chip as long as the person who started the huddle is in it.

On your computer, open Google Chat or Gmail.
- In Gmail: On the left, click Chat.
You can join a huddle from your list of conversations or from a direct message or space:
- To join from your list of conversations: click the huddle icon next to the name or space name.
- To join from within a conversation:
  1. Open a conversation.
  2. At the top right, click Huddles .

By default, the huddle opens as a voice chat.

To change the voice chat to a video chat, click Turn on camera .
- Tip: If someone in the huddle turns on their camera, a video badge Start a video meeting displays next to their profile picture.
To share your screen, click Present now .

To resize a huddle, at the bottom left, drag the handle .

Tip: The huddle window automatically resizes if someone turns on their camera or you click the presentation tile .

To switch from a Chat huddle to Google Meet, at the top right, click Open Meet in tab .

To use a background effect in a huddle, hover over your video, then click Apply visual effects .

To send an emoji reaction in a huddle, click More and then Send a reaction .