Google Meet, a paid video conferencing tool offered by the search engine giant, will now be available for free to anyone with a Google account worldwide, as it’s rolled out over the coming weeks.
While the free product only supports 60 minutes of video conferencing, Google has announced that they won’t be enforcing this limit until September 30, which means free Meet video calls for everyone till then. Anyone with a free Google account can sign in to meet.google.com and start video calls online with up to 100 people in a single call group.
Ever since the pandemic hit and companies worldwide shifted to remote working, another video conferencing tool, Zoom, gained popularity but has been marred by several privacy loopholes that have made the whole experience not so secure.
Since users will require a Google ID to connect to Meet video conferences, problems similar to zoombombing might not be an issue.
Google is also providing several features of its another paid offering, G Suite for businesses, in a G Suite Essentials package, which includes some advanced features that can be accessed by companies for free till September 30, 2020. Click here to complete a form to get G Suite Essentials.
Besides, existing G Suite enterprise customers will be able to live stream to up to 100,000 viewers within their domain.
While G Suite has been around for more time, Zoom’s business surged as the pandemic forced remote working conditions and this step by Google might stall the popularity of Zoom as Google offers a more stable and tested platform with a lower security risk.
“It’s important that everyone who uses Meet has a secure and reliable experience from the start, so beginning next week, we’ll be gradually expanding its availability to more and more people over the following weeks,” Google announced.
Also read: Apple expands its services such as App Store, iCloud to more countries
