Google Meet video conferencing is now free for anyone with a Google account – not just G Suite customers.
Let it be said that no-one will let Zoom win. Just a few days after Facebook announced Messenger Rooms – a new video conferencing feature that doesn’t even require a Facebook account – it’s Google’s turn to strengthen its position in the free video conferencing space.
Starting immediately, Google Meet (previously known as Hangout Meet) is now free of charge to anybody with a Google account. Google insists that all users must log in using a Google account “for safety reasons.”
Meetings can host up to 100 people at a time, and are not limited in time. However, Google did say that it may restrict meeting length to 60 minutes come September 30th.
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Compared to Zoom, Google meet lets host better control participants and help avoid Zoombombing. The latter made many organizations reconsider Zoom as their go-to video conferencing platform in the last two months.
Google will also introduce other security measures. For example, users who are not explicitly invited via a calendar invite will automatically be entered into a waiting room before the host approves them. Note that waiting rooms are a feature on Zoom 5.0, but not in Messenger Rooms.
Furthermore, the free version of Google Meet will also not offer the possibility to join-in via a landline dial-in number.
Finally, Google Meet will also benefit from the addition of “Gallery view,” which lets you view all participants in a single grid view.
This feature arguably made the platform so popular among users since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.