Google extends the limit on the call duration for the free version of Meet until April 2021

After March 31, 2021, Google will limit the call duration of Meet to 60 minutes for users who do not pay for the video conferencing service. It was previously announced that that limit would take effect on September 30 this year, but that has been postponed.

Google says it wants to keep the service available indefinitely during the upcoming holiday period, when people will travel less than usual. Until March 31, 2021, all users with a Gmail account can continue to use Meet ‘unlimited’. In practice there is a limit; conversations can last up to 24 hours.

At the end of April, Google made its video conferencing service Meet available to all users with a Google account. Previously, the service was only available as part of G Suite, for business users. In the announcement in April, Google said that calls would be unlimited until September 30 and that a time limit of one hour per call would be introduced thereafter.

Starting Wednesday, other previously announced restrictions will be implemented for G Suite base plan and G Suite for Education users. For example, the possibility to set up meetings with up to 250 participants will disappear and users with these subscriptions will no longer be able to save recordings in Google Drive. These features are still available with G Suite business plans.