Free accounts on Google Meet are no longer entitled to “unlimited calling”. The company reinstates a one hour limit.
Go back to life on Google Meet. As noted by the 9to5 Google site, the grace period that the Mountain View firm had set up for people with a free account benefiting from unlimited video calling has ended. This discreet change was spotted in the help pages of the American company. The limit is now one hour for group video.
In detail, calls between two correspondents remain in practice almost unlimited, because they can extend up to 24 hours non-stop, including for free Google Meet accounts. This period appears to be largely sufficient to cover almost all the needs. On the other hand, videotelephony with three or more people is restricted to one hour. The call is then cut off automatically.
“Unlimited calls” offered in the midst of a pandemic
It was during the coronavirus pandemic that Google relaxed the use of Meet for free accounts. Initially, the gesture of the American company was to stop in September 2020. The epidemic not disappearing, the group then extended the initiative until March 31, 2021, then again until the 30th. June 2021. There will therefore be no fourth expansion.
These changes come as the vaccine campaign is underway in many countries around the world and the number of new cases, especially in the United States, where Google is located, is plummeting. Today, there is no longer any confinement and, in fact, less the need to organize events remotely, by video, since it is possible to meet physically.
