Soon, free Google Meet calls will have this restriction
What's the story
Google Meet, the dedicated video conferencing platform owned and managed by Google, has evolved into one of the most sophisticated, secure, and popular virtual meeting tools out there.
The service is used by millions of people, but it will soon have a major restriction that many of you may not like.
Here are more details.
Free tier
Google made Meet calls free for everyone in April
Originally, Google Meet was exclusive to paying G Suite customers.
Then, in April, the company decided to open the platform, allowing anyone with a Google account to access the service for free and have uninterrupted virtual meetings with up to 100 participants.
The goal behind the move was to make sure people keep working, studying remotely while increasing Meet's user-base in the process.
Information
Advanced features kept for paying customers
Even though Google made Meet free, the company did not open all of its features to the free users. Many advanced capabilities of the video platform were restricted only to paying G Suite customers.
Caveat
More importantly, the free offer had a major caveat
In addition to basic features, the free tier of Google Meet had one more caveat: time limit.
Specifically, the company had said that the ability to have uninterrupted Meet calls would remain with Google account holders only till the end of September.
Once that window ends, the company said, free Google Meet calls with up to 100 would be restricted to 60 minutes.
Offer end
Window ending in 3 days, no extension planned
Now, on the coming Wednesday, the unlimited access window will come to an end, forcing all non-paying Meet users to make do with 60-minute calls.
The Verge reached out to Google regarding any plans to extend the offer but the company's spokesperson said "we don't have anything to communicate," seemingly indicating that the offer is on track to expire.
Paying customers' loss
G Suite users will also lose some benefits
As part of its offerings, Google had also provided certain enterprise-specific features to G Suite and G Suite for education customers, including 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.
These features are also going away on September 30 and are unlikely to get an extension.
Quote
Here's the full statement from the spokesperson
"We don't have anything to communicate regarding changes to the promo and advanced features expiring," the spokesperson told The Verge. "If this changes, we'll be sure to let you know."