If you are tired of Zoom: Google Meet is now also free.

Google’s Meet video conferencing tool has previously been limited to paying G Suite subscribers, but now is moving to a free consumer product for all, and all google users with google account.

It usually goes in the other direction with Google products: what is successful with consumers, then gets a business version for use in companies.

With Meet, Google goes in the opposite direction for once.

Google Meet is now also free.

Is google meet free? 

The Zoom competitor, until recently known as Hangouts Meet, has been part of G Suite for a long time but is now available for free to anyone with a Google account.
“All users with a Google account can surf through meet.google.com and start a meeting or join one,”

Serge Lachapelle, Director of Product Management for G Suite, Says. “They will also be able to enjoy all the new features we are rolling out, as will our paying G Suite customers.”

New functions

Google previously announced that it will extend its video conferencing software with some much-requested features.

For example, the maximum number of video tiles during a meeting will be expanded from 4 to 16, you will be able to share a separate Chrome tab,

And AI will be used to make you more visible in less good lighting conditions and to filter out background noise.

The latter was immediately expertly demonstrated by Lachapelle by crumpling a paper bag in front of the camera during the virtual briefing.

With the background filter active, his voice became dull, but we effectively no longer heard the crease of the bag.

Fast growth

Google Meet, like alternative video chat services such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, is experiencing a huge increase in use as a result of the corona pandemic and associated lockdown measures.

 Today, some 6 million companies already rely on G Suite services and more than 2 billion minutes a day in Google Meet.

The number of users is currently increasing by 3 million a day. That could accelerate further as Meet is made available to all Google accounts.

Free version limitations

However, the free version has some limitations over the paying G Suite variant.

For example, free users cannot record meetings and the maximum number of call participants is limited to 100 instead of 250 for premium users.

In addition, the length of a video chat will be limited to 1 hour for free accounts,

Although Google certainly will not exceed that limit until September to accommodate users during the corona crisis, Lachapelle says.

There is also a difference in terms of management. For the free version, every participant needs a Google account to participate in a video call via a Meet link.

Business users can immediately participate in meetings within the same domain, while external participants must first identify themselves to the organizer to gain access.

Hangouts disappear

Google still offers a Hangouts app for consumers today, with which you can also make video calls.

However, the Hangouts brand name should disappear completely in the long term, Lachapelle emphasizes.

Google will provide its video service “Meet” with a free variant from mid-May, the company announced on Wednesday on its blog.

Calls in this option are limited to 60 minutes, although Google says it will only enforce this from October.

Users of the free version of Google Meet can allow up to 100 people to participate in a conversation.

While The paid variant offers space for up to 250 participants.

The meet was already available to all users of Google’s G Suite business service.

The product was first known as Hangouts Meet, but the name was changed in early April.

This creates a better distinction with Hangouts, the chat app from Google.

Google director Sundar Pichai announced on Tuesday evening with the presentation of the quarterly figures that Google Meet is being tried by 3 million new people every day.

Video calling services such as Meet are growing due to the corona crisis. Google Meet now has 100 million users.

Everyone can now use the Google video service: Google Meet.

The service was initially made temporarily free for schools and companies, now that people work from home as much as possible.

Video calling with large groups was previously only reserved for paying users. Due to the corona crisis, Google has already made the service temporarily available to schools and companies.

Competitor for Zoom

Free accounts with up to 100 people will soon be able to make a video call.

Functions such as screen sharing and gallery display can also be used by users on Google Meet.

Until September 30, there is a limit of 60 minutes per video call. Google will then lift the limit.

From next week, everyone can use Google Meet. Google announced this. Users can use Meet through meet.google.com and Meet mobile apps.

In recent weeks, Google has made a good competitor for the other well-known video service Zoom.

Zoom is currently even more popular than Google Meet. The company says it currently has 300 million daily users.

“Meet is growing by 3 million users daily,” said Sundar Pichai, after the company’s quarterly earnings were announced via an Earning Call on YouTube.

On April 9 that was still about 2 million. The growth is due to schools and businesses continuing to hold their classes and meetings through video calling services.

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Video calling on WhatsApp

Also at WhatsApp, users can make video calls with 8 people at a time. Previously, this was only possible with just 4 people.

The new adaptation should make a video call with family or several friends easier.

Especially now that everyone has to stay indoors as much as possible in the context of the corona measures.

Moreover, it is not the only modification that WhatsApp made. Earlier, the messaging app made it impossible to forward messages to multiple people.

This is to prevent the spread of fake news.

The battle for video conferencing, won so far by Zoom, is spreading. Google video service Meet is now free for all users.

Until now, the service was temporarily free for schools and companies. Previously, features such as large group video calling were reserved for paying users.

Don’t start looking straight away: the free service will be rolled out from next week.

Facebook is also working on a video service and in anticipation of this has increased the number of people with whom you can video call via WhatsApp at the same time to 8 users.

Conclusion.

Video calling is suddenly big business.