Google is extending its policy of letting Gmail users host free Google Meet video call meetings until March 2021, Google announced in a blogpost on Tuesday. However, the 24-hour cap will continue.

In April, when the companies across the world were shifting to the work from home culture, Google had made video calls free through Google Meet with no limit on users until September 2020.

Google Meet was engineered to conduct secure business meetings. Samir Pradhan, the Product Manager of Google Meet, said: “As we look ahead to a holiday season with less travel and important milestones like family reunions, PTA meetings and weddings hosted over the video, we want to continue helping those who rely on Meet to stay in touch over the coming months. As a sign of our commitment, today we’re continuing unlimited Meet calls (up to 24 hours) in the free version through March 31, 2021, for Gmail accounts.”

Google Meets currently allow up to 100 people per meeting and it has added some more feature to this free offering in the past couple of months. Features like noise cancellation, background blur, 49-person grid view, collaborative digital whiteboard, and Chromecast support are some of the latest features in Google Meet.

The players in the video conferencing sectors have all seen a surge in the usage of their products during this COVID-19 induced pandemic. This trend doesn’t seem to slow down even as the economies around the world are slowly opening up. Google Meet alone exceeded 100 million installs from the Play Store.

First Published:Sept 30, 2020 2:19 PM IST