Popular video conferencing platform Zoom, which saw a massive surge in users as the world went into lockdown and working from home. But pretty soon, users faced many security issues and unpleasant experiences (which were referred to as “Zoombombings” at corporate meetings and online school lessons etc which eventually escalated to Zoombombing becoming a federal offense.
Enter, Google.
Google already offers Google Hangouts that allows about 10 people to video chat and Duo (for two) totally FREE to Gmail users. Google Meet on the other hand allows up to 100 participants on a video conference call at once, and includes features such as scheduling, screen sharing and real-time captioning has been a premium service. On 29th April, Google announced that they were making this available FREE for all, for a limited time.
The free version of Google Meet requires you to have or create a free Google (gmail) account. Video calls supposedly have a 60-minute cap, but Google had said they won’t enforce this cap until after 30th Sept.
How To Access Google Meet for FREE
You can access Google Meet for free right now, if you already have a Gmail (which is also free). All you have to do is, login to your Gmail (or your logged-in Chrome browser) and go to Google Meet meetings page.
How to use Google Meet
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3
- Go to meet.google.com
- Click Start a meeting button
- Check how you look and click the Join now button
You can add others to your meeting, too or invite them via Google Calendar invitation, ahead of time.
In case you have trouble with the above process, you can also request for the feature as well. Go to the Google Meet page. Enter your name, email, country and primary use for Google Meet (personal, business, education or government). Agree to Google’s terms and hit Submit.
It’s interesting to note that Google explicitly mentions in their blog post that they have included a number of default privacy protections for Meet, complex meeting codes and encryption in transit for example, as if to say they were making sure users understand that Meet would NOT have any of the issues they faced on Zoom.
Also note that Google is not the only tech giant who’s targeting the massive user rallying around Zoom. Facebook Messenger Rooms, Skype’s Meet Now and Microsoft Teams also offer video chat/conferencing features for large groups for FREE so it’s worthwhile checking them out as well.
Feel free to Share on your social pages or just click to Tweet, so more small biz owners will benefit from these, during these uncertain times.
Premium service Google Meet, now FREE for video conferencing for up to 100 people. https://meet.google.com/
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Here’s a growing list of FREE services and extended periods of support for small and medium businesses during the global crisis. https://indunanayakkara.wordpress.com/2020/05/01/support-for-small-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19/
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Thanks Indu. Very useful article!
You’re welcome, Ayami. Feel free to share with any small biz owners you know. I’ll be blogging daily during the month of May, to help our as much as I can 🙂
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