Microsoft and Google offer free collaboration tools for enterprises in response to the coronavirus

Due to the current public health situation caused by the coronavirus outbreak, more and more people are working or studying from home. Now, Google and Microsoft are facilitating remote work by providing free access to some of their collaboration apps for enterprises and schools.

Google announced yesterday that in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, it will be rolling out free access to its advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all global customers. The capabilities include larger participant count for meetings (250 users per call), live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers and the option to record meetings and save them to Google Drive. These features are typically included in the Enterprise edition of G Suite and the Enterprise for Education edition. They are available for no additional cost for Google customers with other G Suite subscriptions until July 1, 2020.


Meanwhile, as Business Insider first reported, Microsoft is now offering a six-month free trial to a premium version of the chat and collaboration app Microsoft Teams to its global customers. Reportedly, on March 10, Microsoft will be rolling out an update to the free version of Teams that will remove restrictions on the number of users in a team and provide the users with the possibility to schedule video calls and conferences.

The two US tech giants have been working to prevent the spread of the disease by cancelling conferences or limiting international travels, and are now providing these free options for collaboration from home, so that people can continue their work and stay connected.