Google Meet to limit meetings to 60 minutes on free plans from September 30th

Google said in April it would allow unlimited-length meetings in its Google Meet video chat platform for all users until September 30th, and it looks like the company is sticking with that timeline. After September 30th, free versions of Meet will be limited to meetings no longer than 60 minutes. Those features are normally only available to customers on the “enterprise” tier of G Suite, which costs USD 25 per user per month.During the coronavirus pandemic, Google Meet and other video-conferencing platforms have been chasing the meteoric rise of Zoom, with Meet passing 100 million daily participants back in April. A Google spokesperson told The Verge in an email, “We don`t have anything to communicate regarding changes to the promo and advanced features expiring. If this changes, we`ll be sure to let you know”. Under the extension, anyone with a Google account could create free meetings with up to 100 people, and with no time limit.

Also going away September 30th are 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. 

Of course what this deadline means for most users who don’t want to upgrade to a paid Meet plan is that they’ll have to limit their conference calls to 60 minutes or less. Not… really seeing the downside there.