Google announced that it’s making its video meeting tool for G Suite customers available for free to everyone. Starting next week, Google is opening up access to Meet everyone gradually. 

The free meetings can be scheduled up to 100 people that can last any amount of time. After September, free accounts will be limited to meetings that don’t run longer than 60 minutes. Google Meet also provides cross-app integration, making it easy to create and join meetings from the Meet, Google Calendar, and Gmail web pages and Android/iOS apps. Additionally, users need a Google account to use Google Meet, which may add a bit of friction while the competitor product, Zoom, makes it with just a link.

Google puts options for groups within organizations as well. “For organizations that aren’t already G Suite customers, today we’re announcing G Suite Essentials,” it states. “G Suite Essentials is perfect for teams that need access to Meet’s more advanced features, such as dial-in phone numbers, larger meetings, and meeting recording.” Google is providing G Suite Essentials and all of these features free of charge through September 30.

The obvious reason behind this move is to compete against the recent rise of Zoom and increasing video meeting traffic after the start of COVID-19. Another reason may be a desire to enhance the Google Hangouts. But there’s a fact that Google’s new move will change the dynamics of the video conferencing market in the coming term.

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