Without fuss, Google Meet has now imposed a limit on video calls in the free version: individual calls can last up to 24 hours, but meetings with three or more people are now restricted to 1 hour. The company warned that free unlimited video calls would end in June 2021. Alternatively, you can use Microsoft Teams.
How to make group video call on WhatsApp
According to Tecnoblog, Google explains in a support article that non-paying Meet users can do the following:
individual calls (between 2 people) lasting up to 24 hours;
between 3 or more participants lasting up to 60 minutes.
If you’re in a meeting, all attendees will receive a 55-minute notification that the call is almost over. Just like before, users with a personal Google account can make calls with up to 100 people.
This limitation was originally scheduled to arrive in September 2020, but the pandemic still kept several people indoors. Google then postponed the deadline to March 2021, and then to June. Now that several countries have vaccinated much of the population, the google meet bean is being withdrawn.
The support article with the limit for free users was last saved in the Internet Archive in April, when there was no mention of the time limit on calls.
Google Meet has 24-hour meetings on paid Workspace
It is worth noting that Google Workspace Individual subscribers can hold meetings of up to 24 hours, whether individual or in a group (with three or more participants); the plan costs $7.99 per month. The same rule applies to Workspace Business and Education.
Google has been focusing on offering paid services to users, including end consumers. For example, Google Photos has stopped offering unlimited space, encouraging you to buy cloud storage through Google One.
Microsoft Teams keeps unlimited and free calls
The free version of Microsoft Teams envisaged imposing a 60-minute limit on video calls starting in July 2021. However, the company says this: “to support our customers during COVID-19, we extend this limit to 24 hours until further determination.”
In Skype, video meetings can last up to 4 hours each, up to a maximum of 10 hours in a day or 100 hours per month, as explained by the Microsoft Fair Use Policy. When you reach one of these limits, the connection is converted to audio-only mode. Check out 15 apps for making video calls.
