Currently, everyone is in a lockdown of sorts since the world is fighting a virus outbreak and people are told to stay indoors which is the best way to fight this virus. For this reason, new trends are emerging in the tech industry where people have started using video calling platforms more and more. Now, we know that there is a video calling feature on almost every major platform such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and others. However, these platforms have a limit to the people who can join a video call at a time as well.
Thus, we also have dedicated platforms for video calling and Zoom is one of them. It has a limit of 100 people that can enter a group video call at the same time. This means that the platform quickly became a fan favourite and people have started using it in mass. Having said that, Zoom is known to have privacy issues since people can join with a link and if that link gets spread to a hacker, they can also join the meeting. Also, there have been tons of instances of Zoom calls getting bombed recently.
So to cash in on this trend of video calling, Google has made its enterprise version of Meet video calling platform free for all. However, it is worth noting that you will need to have a Google account for using the platform. So if you don’t want to make a Google account due to privacy reasons, there is no way you can use Google Meet.
Google also says that anyone having a Google account will now be able to create free meetings of up to 100 people that can last any amount of time. “Free” is the keyword here because until now, users had to have an enterprise account for using this platform. Also, Google says that there might be restrictions to the length of this free video calls up to 60 minutes from September 30.
Google says that people need to be logged-in to their accounts in order to attend a meeting rather than just clicking on a link. And this is done in order to eliminate the issue of “Zoombombing” where people join the meeting without permission. Another security feature with Google Meet is that people not added to a meeting via a calendar invite prior to the meeting will be automatically entered into a green room when they try to join a meeting, and they can enter the meeting if the host accepts their request.
