It's good news for Google Meet fans as the tech company has decided to continue to let people to use the video conferencing app for free without a 60-minute time limit until next year. So users can chat with their family, friends, colleagues, therapist, or really any random people on the internet without the worry of being cut off. Technically, the time limit is 24 hours, but it's unlikely anyone would want to chat that long.
Formerly known as Hangouts Meet, Google Meet is an enterprise version of the video chat component of Google Hangouts. Meant to compete with other video conferencing platforms, such as Zoom and Skype, the app is designed for online meetings and can be synced with Google Calendar. Google Meet is available as part of the company's subscription-based G Suite web applications. Back in April, in light of COVID-19 forcing people to socially distance from one another, Google also made the product free for anyone with a Gmail account.
Next month, Google Meet was going to restrict those calls to an hour. Even at 60 minutes, Google Meet would be a pretty good option when compared to Zoom, which cuts off free calls at 40 minutes but now that time limit has been deferred. Google Meet's group product manager Samir Pradhan wrote in a blog post Tuesday that the September 30 cutoff had been pushed back until March 31, 2021. This means any Gmail user can still schedule video meetings that last up to a full day throughout the holidays and beyond.
Pradham wrote in the post that since Google Meet redesigned the product to appeal to non-business users as well, the video conferencing tool has been used by millions of people for a variety of different types of meetings, including book clubs, trivia nights, band practices and even dance parties. Google Meet also includes some newer features that might appeal to video chatters, such as integration with both G Suite's digital whiteboard Google Jamboard and Nest Hub Max, which allows users to make hands-free calls on the device. Users can also choose to blur the background so only they appear in focus in the video stream and hide their possibly messy surroundings.
In another recent update, Google Meet increased the number of video tiles users can see on a screen to 49. Granted, that could make for a rather confusing and loud conversation, especially if some of the video streams are showing more than one person. But it's an option for those who, say, may want to have a holiday phone call with their insanely large extended family across the globe. If they feel they need a bigger screen to see everyone, they can always cast the call to their TVs. For whatever purpose it's used, Google Meet is a good video conferencing tool and the decision to hold off on imposing a time limit for free calls will likely continue to be a boon for the company.
Source: Google
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