With the COVID-19 making video conferencing services increasingly essential, Google has decided to make its own video conferencing app Google Meet free to anyone who wants to use it. Until now, Google Meet was only available as part of G Suite, a service for businesses and schools. Specifically, the company says that anyone with a Google will now be able to participate in group conversations of up to 100 people, while each video conference will last up to 60 minutes. This time limit will apply from September 30th onwards. Until then, there is no time limit. However, the Google account requirement presents difficulties, as users will not be able to simply click on a link and take part in a video conference, but will have to log in. This means that meetings will have to be better controlled by participants, in an effort to eliminate “Zoombombing”. Google will also introduce other security. Specifically, people without a Google account will not be able to join meetings created by individual accounts, but will be automatically transferred to a green room and will only be allowed to participate after approval by the host. In addition, the conference codes in Google Meet, which will now be provided for free, are resistant to hacking attempts, meetings are encrypted, and no add-ons are required to install it on the web, as the program works fully in Chrome and other browsers. The free version will also not offer landline numbers for meetings.
These security-focused changes are how Google is differentiating Meet from Zoom, which has skyrocketed in popularity. However, Zoom has been plagued by a number of security issues that the fast-growing company has been working to address. But Google seems to be hoping it can gain traction by relying on people who don’t trust Zoom. Google has its own trust issues when it comes to conferencing and messaging products.
Many Google users may remember or still use Hangouts Video chat. Google has announced that this service will be moved to Google Meet in the future, so that there is just one platform for both consumers and businesses. Alongside the availability of Meet for consumers, Google is unveiling a new G Suite service called “G Suite Essentials” that includes Meet and Google Drive, but not Gmail. All current G Suite customers will still have free access to Meet until September 30th. Finally, Meet is being integrated into Gmail. In the same way that Microsoft leveraged Office to "drive" people into teams, Google is fully leveraging the power of Gmail to promote its own video conferencing app.
