Free Google Meet for everyone with a Google account. Starting from 4 May,

https://meet.google.com/?auth...=1
Google is moving to stem the stratospheric rise of Zoom, by offering its own mass-scale online meeting solution Google Meet to everyone with a Google account. Starting from 4 May, Google will be enabling access to Meet to all Google account holders to help them stay in touch.

Meet is normally reserved for users of the paid-for G Suite – Google’s solution for businesses and education – but to help people stay in touch the company is making it available to any Google account holder until 30 September 2020. It expects the roll-out to be completed by mid-May. Google has confirmed that it’s seeing 100 million daily users for Meet, and since January has seen peak Meet users increase 30×.

What does that mean? It means you get many of the benefits that has made Zoom so popular, including video conferencing for up to 100 participants, the ability to schedule those meetings, and the ability to share your screen – which is great for quizzes.

But Google is really keen to push the security of Google Meet, following widespread criticism of Zoom’s platform. That means Meets are encrypted in transmission and when stored on Google Drive. Meeting IDs and passwords are complex and randomised and the host has lots of controls to prevent Zoombombing, or Meetbombing, if you prefer.

Google Meet normally has a 60-minute time limit on meetings for the free product, but this has been waived until 30 September. Want to watch a Marvel movie marathon with your friends? You can have a 24-hour Google Meet while you do it.

Recently Google added some of the most-requested features for Meet, including a tiled view for up to 16 people on one screen – very Zoomy – the ability to present a single Chrome Tab rather than the whole desktop, an AI-powered low light mode to make your video look better in bad lighting and noise cancellation to get rid of background noise.

The only thing you need to get started with Google Meet is a Google account. You’ll be able to use Google Meet through your desktop browser, or through dedicated Android and iOS apps, with no need for plug-ins, which Google again says makes it more secure.