Google makes Meet free for everyone until Sept. 30

A week after Facebook rolled out its own video conferencing app to take on the popularity of Zoom, Google recently announced that it is making its premium video chat tool, Google Meet, available to anyone.

Previously offered to enterprises, organizations and schools via G Suite, Meet can now be used by anyone who has a Google account. Users can create free meetings with up to 100 people that can last for up to 60 minutes per session. However, Google said that it won’t enforce that time restriction until September 30 so people can have longer conversations amid the lockdown.

Apart from the unlimited time, users can also enjoy some of Meet’s premium features which include scheduling, screen sharing, real-time captions and an expanded tiled view popularized by Zoom.

Meet also has a set of default security measures in place. Google said that meetings in their product are resilient to brute-force “guessing” because of its default complex codes while all recordings that are stored in Google Drive are encrypted in transit and rest.

Google also ensured that ‘Zoombombings’ won’t happen in their Meet meetings as hosts are given an array of controls such as the power to add or deny entry to uninvited guests.

Google said that Meet’s availability will gradually be expanded in the coming weeks. This means that not everyone won’t be able to use Meet right away. However, Google said that those who are interested to use its video conferencing product can sign up to be notified when it’s  available in their area.