Free access to Premium Google Meet gets extended to support users during COVID-19 quarantine

While its competitor video conferencing app Zoom faces privacy issues and a growing list of businesses outright ban it from being used, Google Meet appears to enjoy growing adoption and success, supporting over two million new users each day.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter announcing the company's efforts to help businesses and schools stay connected, with free access to Google Meet's premium features now available for G Suite users, until the end of 2020.


With the COVID-19 pandemic holding families at home, this action from Google is definitely going to help many continue their education or work from home. Pichai also notes that 100 million students and educators have now adopted Google Classroom, a free web service for schools, helping students and teachers continue their education process online.

In a blog post supporting Pichai's announcement, Google points out that Meet and all other G Suite apps run on Google's secure and resilient global infrastructure, likely to differentiate itself from competitive app Zoom and its flaws regarding user privacy.

Google's now freely available premium Meet video conferencing service supports meetings with up to 250 participants, and live streams with up to 100,000 viewers. Previously those features were available to subscribers of the Enterprise edition of G Suite, and in G Suite Enterprise for Education.

We've also reported on other tech companies showing support towards their customers during the unique times we find ourselves in. Apple is letting Apple Card users skip monthly payments without occurring interest, and is donating millions in supporting the fight against COVID-19. Meanwhile Samsung is now offering door-to-door servicing of their Galaxy products in some regions, in an attempt to keep its users at home, and safe.