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As video conferencing becomes increasingly more necessary during the coronavirus pandemic, Google has tried to implement its own services into its various platforms. Google Meet had previously been a service launched for usage by commercial businesses and was not free. Users needed a G-Suite account in order to access the service. But in the wake of the pandemic in April, Google shifted to a free version to attract new users and allow people to connect at no extra cost. Now, Google has taken another step with this platform in integrating it directly into Gmail for both the iPhone and the Android.
One of the major differences that will be rolled out in the coming weeks is that there is no need to have a separate Google Meet app on mobile devices. The service will now be readily available in Gmail and will not require a switch in apps like it has in the past. This will make Google Meet much more readily available for regular users and will reduce the amount of space required to have two separate apps. A user can simply send another user a link and then be taken directly to a video conference call with one click. Clearly, Google is seeking to bring this feature to new users who may not have had the foresight to go and download yet another separate app in the past.
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In the future, Google Meet will have a separate, easy to find tab at the bottom of Gmail’s basic interface. With this new feature, there will be an organized schedule with all of your upcoming Google Meet appointments in Google Calendar. For those who don’t want this change, there will be a way to turn off this feature in the settings menu in the app. It remains to be seen what will happen with Google Hangouts as a result of this business decision.
Currently, the free service offers up to 100 users in a video conference at a time and a limit of just one host. The G-Suite version still in service offers a maximum of 250 users in a conference at a time and more hosts. There is currently no time limit on any of these calls, but in September 2020 a time limit will be placed at approximately one hour. Anyone who is a host is able to remove users or deny them from joining a call.
This makes sense given Google is now going directly head to head with other video conferencing services like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, among others. Google Meet gets approximately 100 million users a day using the service while Zoom receives roughly double that number. The coronavirus has really amplified the importance of these technologies and Google pushing their own service is no real surprise.
Do not be shocked if Google continues to implement its Meet service deeper into its other platforms besides its popular email service. The rapid growth of these video conferencing services makes this one of the most important areas for tech companies like Google to expand upon as more and more people work from home or are stuck there.
