Google Meet Premium: The videoconferencing service now free for all

To compete with the success of the Zoom videoconferencing service, Google is going on the attack and is offering its videoconferencing service, Google Meet premium, free of charge from 4 May until 30 September.

Google is counting on the security of its platform and its ease of use to compete with Zoom.

Source: Google. The “mosaic” display allows you to see 16 people at a time.

Google Meet, which had been made easier to access since the beginning of the containment for G Suite users (more than 100 million worldwide), goes further: it will now be accessible to the general public free of charge. Its deployment starting May 4 will be spread out country by country over several weeks.

In concrete terms, with Google Meet, everyone will have access from a computer, but also from a smartphone (ios or android) or a tablet:

• To videoconferences that can accommodate up to 100 participants for the general public (250 for companies);
• A mosaic display to show 16 people at a time;
• Sessions of unlimited duration during the Covid crisis (which will be limited to one hour after September 30);
• The possibility to share your screen to make a group presentation;
• Real-time subtitling.

Google is committed to security and transparency.

To use Google Meet, you just need to own or create a Gmail account, the objective being thus – according to Google – to avoid “Meet bombing”, i.e. the risk that a person joins an assignment without having been invited, as was observed with Zoom.

Other measures have been put in place by Google to ensure security and privacy:

• Complex session names to prevent hacking;
• Rights management by the creator of the meeting who can accept or exclude participants, activate or deactivate their microphone;
• End-to-end data encryption as well as encryption of their recordings on Google Drive;
• The non-use of the data for advertising or commercial purposes as assured by Javier Soltero, Vice President of G Suite.

Videoconferences can be organized in two clicks.

Google Meet works directly in Chrome, as well as other browsers. To organize a videoconference it’s very simple, just send an email to the people you want to invite, or add them to a meeting from Google Calendar. Your attendees will receive a URL link that they can click on to accept and join the meeting (they will even receive a reminder by email and/or a notification on their smartphone). You can read more about this in this blog post.

Done sàrl is an official reseller of G Suite, do not hesitate to contact us for a complete presentation of its services.