Google Meet, the video conferencing platform that Google has been offering for some time, is now available free of charge for all those who need such a service to carry out their work normally.
Google Meet offers the possibility to hold video conferences with up to 100 participants, i.e. exactly the same as Zoom, but this is only for regular users, because for companies the limit is 250 participants, and the 1-hour limit for meetings will not be imposed until September 30.
“In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing requirements, Google announces that the premium video conferencing solution Google Meet will be available for free to everyone and will be gradually implemented in the coming weeks.
Google Meet offers video conferencing with up to 100 participants – for individual users – and up to 250 participants, for companies. Meetings are limited to 1 hour for the free version, but this limit will not be enforced until September 30th.
Access to Google Meet is based on your Google account. There is no need to install a plug-in or software to use Meet. It works directly from the browser – Chrome or another popular browser, at: meet.google.com. On mobile there is the Google Meet app – iOS or Android.
Until now, Google Meet was only available in the paid G Suite for Business package.
Some figures on Google Meet usage in recent months globally:
- Since January, Meet's daily peak usage has increased 30 times
- In April, Meet hosted 3 billion minutes of video meetings and registered 3 million new users every day
- Last week, the number of daily Meet participants exceeded 100 million”
