Google rolled out Google Meet, a revamped version of its Hangouts Meet video chat program, in April 2020, and made the app available to anyone with a Google Account. You can start or join a Meet video conference directly from your Gmail inbox, using the buttons Google has placed on the left side of the page.
But what if you don't intend to use Meet, or even if you just don't want it there all the time? No worries, you can hide the buttons. (Note:If you're using a corporate Google Workspace account, you may not be able to change this, depending on your administrator settings.)
Here's how to hide Google Meet in the Gmail desktop app. (You can also hide it in your Android or iOS app.)
That's it! And even if you hide the Meet shortcut in Gmail, you can still access Meet by going to https://meet.google.com/.
Updated July 28, 2021 at 11:30 a.m. ET: This article was originally published on June 4, 2020; there have been slight edits to the text, and one of the screenshots has been updated to reflect the interface changes.