Source: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central
What you need to know
- Google Meet's unlimited meetings will remain available for the free version of the service till June this year.
- Google had previously extended it through March after initially lifting the limitations of the free iteration in 2020.
- Now, users will no longer have to pay to hold a meeting that exceeds 1 hour until June.
Google is extending the temporary removal of limitations on the free iteration of Meet past March, the company announced today. It's a second extension to a freebie that was initially slated to expire in September 2020.
To be precise, it allowed users to hold meetings longer than an hour on the free version of Meet. Users would have had to pay for the privilege by signing up for a Google Workspace plan before this move. Now, Google is extending this gift through June, allowing users to make use of the product for a little while longer.
As we noted last time Google extended the limit on Meet, there's still a 24-hour limit, but you're not really going to hit that in organic conversation — unless you're using some of the best headphones for Zoom, Skype, and Google Meet and they don't die by then. The company did not expand on why it was extending the free period this time. Perhaps Google has seen some momentum with free Meet and hopes to keep the traction going for a few months more.
A more likely reason could be that June is the period where people are likely to be heading back to work en masse and stop relying on video conferencing services as much. The United Kingdom is planning to re-open in June, and the United States plans to have all Americans eligible for vaccination by May with an eye to normalcy by July. It makes sense for Google to target June with that in mind.
Do you plan on using Google Meet once the limits on free are reinstated? Let us know in the comments below.
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