Google’s video chat platform Google Meet has announced that free versions of Meet will be limited to meetings no longer than 60 minutes after September 30.
The deadline of September 30 also applies to “other features like access to advanced features for G Suite and G Suite for Education customers, including allowing 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,” the Verge reported.
“Under the extension, anyone with a Google account could create free meetings with up to 100 people, and with no time limit,” Google spokesperson told The Verge in an email. Those features are normally only available to customers on the “enterprise” tier of G Suite, which costs USD 25 per user per month.
It is to be noted that Google Meet and other video-conferencing platforms have witnessed a meteoric rise in customers since the COVID-19 pandemic forced most white-collared office workers to work from home. It is also being used by schools to teach students online during the pandemic.
Moreover, contributing in the fight against COVID-19, Google is launching a new auto-generated software framework to help states deploy their own contact tracing apps. According to The Verge, the app developed as an extension of the earlier exposure notification framework, allows public health authorities to avoid the broader development work of launching a standalone app, simply configuring the basic framework to their state’s needs.