From Zoom to Microsoft Teams to Skype, there are many platforms that you can use for online meetings and video calls. Joining this roster of programs is Google Meet, a new video communication service developed by Google.
In its earlier stages, the company allowed unlimited-length meetings in Google Meet for all users. Plus, anyone with a Google account can create free meetings with up to 100 people. However, as announced in their site, this will only last until today (September 30, 2020).
Or so we thought. According to this blog post by Google Meet’s group product manager, Samir Pradhan, free users can still host meetings with no time limit until March 31, 2021. Yay!
Photo from Unsplash
“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.” he writes. “As a sign of our commitment, today we’re continuing unlimited Meet calls (up to 24 hours) in the free version through March 31, 2021 for Gmail accounts.”
However, the other features will not be getting an extension. After September 30, access to advanced features in G Suite and G Suite for Education customers will also be going away. This means that you can no longer have meetings of up to 250 participants, host live-streams of up to 100,000 people within a single domain, and saving meeting recordings in Google Drive. To avail of these features, you need to get the “enterprise” tier of G Suite, which costs $25 per user per month (around PHP1,200).
[Also Read: These Zoom Backgrounds Could Make Any Online Meeting A Little More Bearable]
What platform do you use for meetings? Share your recommendations with us!
Do you have a story for the WhenInManila.com Team? Email me at diane.wheninmanila@gmail.com or send a direct message to our WhenInManila.com Facebook Page. Interact with the team and join the WhenInManila.com Community at WIM Squad and join us on Viber for updates!
