Google Meet to continue unlimited calls in free plan till March 2021

Google has announced to continue providing unlimited calls (up to 24 hours) in the free version of its video conferencing app called Meet through March 31, 2021 for Gmail accounts.

Google in April announced that anyone with a Google account was allowed to create free meetings with up to 100 people with no time limit till September 30 in the pandemic times.

Google is now extending that policy and free Meet users can host longer calls through March 2021.

"As we look ahead to a holiday season with less travel and important milestones like family reunions, PTA meetings and weddings hosted over video, we want to continue helping those who rely on Meet to stay in touch over the coming months," Samir Pradhan, Group Product Manager, Google Meet, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Google this month introduced a new feature in its Meet app where the users can now see up to 49 people at the same time (including themselves) in the auto and tiled layout options.

"Jump on the call without worrying about the holiday wrapping paper mess behind you with background blur, or take trivia night to the next level by seeing 49 of your competitors (and yourself) at the same time. You can even keep score using our collaborative digital whiteboard," Pradhan said.

However, access to advanced features for G Suite and G Suite for Education customers, including allowing meetings of up to 250 participants, live-streams of up to 100,000 people within a single domain, and the ability to save meeting recordings to Google Drive will not be there from September 30.

Google had allowed free access to Meet's advanced features for all G Suite customers, such as the ability to live stream for up to 100,000 viewers within their domain, free additional Meet licenses for qualifying G Suite customers without any amendments to their current contract and free G Suite Essentials for new customers.

These features are available to customers on the "enterprise" tier of G Suite, which costs $25 per user per month.

--IANS

na/