- The Meet Now feature in Skype is the Microsoft answer on the hugely popular Zoom platform.
- While Meet Now is enabled by default in Windows 10, you can easily disable it
After the latest Windows 10 update, you may have noticed the new Meet Now icon in your taskbar.
You know, the small button with a video camera icon that will launch Skype’s Meet Now web conferencing software when clicked.
What Is Meet Now?
Simply put, Meet Now is a feature of Skype software launched in April 2020 as an answer from Microsoft to the hugely popular Zoom platform.
With this feature, you can easily create video chats with invite links that may be shared with others. You can copy the link and paste it into a messenger app or on social media.
The cool fact is that you don’t need to have a Skype account or even the software installed to join the video chat. All you need is the link to the meeting, a web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge), and a video camera and microphone on your device.
You can also easily join these meetings from iPhone, iPad, or Android devices.
While Meet Now is enabled by default in Windows 10, you can easily disable it. Here is how.
The easiest way to hide the Meet Now icon is to right-click on the small video camera symbol in the notification area of your Windows 10 taskbar and select Hide.
Disable the Meet Now Button From Settings App
Another way to disable the Meet Now button is by using the Windows Settings app.
STEP 1: Click on the Start Menu button and then click on the Settings (gear icon).
STEP 2: Then select the Personalization and click on the Taskbar option in the left panel.
STEP 3: Now, under the Taskbar settings menu, scroll down, and find the Notification area section.
STEP 4: After you find it, select the Turn system icons on or off link.
STEP 5: Now. you should see a list of Windows icons. Find the Meet Now option and turn off the switch.
That’s it. It’ll completely turn off the Meet Now icon and Windows 10 will no longer show the icon in Taskbar.
How to Remove Meet Now From Windows 10
Meet Now is integrated into the Windows 10 operating system. It has been a part of the update to a Windows System component (Windows Shell Experience Host). Because Meet Now is not a standalone program or app, it is a feature in Skype, it can’t be uninstalled.
So if you want to uninstall or remove Meet Now in Windows 10, hiding or disabling the icon from Taskbar using methods we described above, is your best option.
To completely remove it, you have to uninstall Skype. Go to the Settings, find the Apps option, and under Apps & Features find Skype and uninstall it.
This is something that should be an option. Simply removing the icon or link does not remove changes that were made in some part of Windows 10 to create this. That means that some part of Windows 10 chooses to control something that I do not want on my computer. We were fine for a number of years with being able to simply choose if we wanted something like Skype, even though it was shoved down our throats at every corner, we could simply uninstall it. Now we can’t uninstall it. If you would like to force installation of something how about including office products or something useful rather than something that reeks of lacking security.