Our group, Mercury Consultants, met remotely using the Google Chat function. I had never used it before, but we got through the meeting pretty seamlessly. All of us felt kind of self-conscious being on screen when the camera would switch to us, so we all decided not to look at the video feed. We had tabs open on our computers for our various notes about the project so we didn't need to look at the video anyway.
The only trouble we had with it was that the sound was very echo-y towards the end of our call. Though it was a little annoying, it didn't hurt our meeting too much. In the future, I think that I will feel more comfortable using video chat/meetings. It was almost a fun experience!
I think it's so cool that Google shows whoever's talking. In my opinion it's perhaps the best way to have a group chat. That said it is a little disconcerting to have the screen constantly switching, and if someone bangs something or knocks something over while someone else is talking it's distracting to have the camera switch over.
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