Shared virtual meeting services among computer applications

A method and system for controlling the interaction between a primary application and a virtual meeting application and assigning the responsibility between them for providing user interface components is provided. The virtual meeting application provides the functionality for a virtual meeting and provides user interface components related to transient state changes in the virtual meeting. The virtual meeting application is called from the user interface provided by the primary application. In response to state change event notification sent by the virtual meeting application to the primary application, the primary application updates user interface components that supplement the user interface provided by the virtual meeting application. The virtual meeting application is invoked through an application interface that is exposed by the virtual meeting application in a global name space. The application interface may be associated with a predefined mode that specifies which of the user interface components provided by the virtual meeting application will be displayed in a manner that appears to be part of the primary application's user interface and which of the virtual meeting user interface components will be suppressed.