Catch up with the news!

By Juliet Umeh

Search engine, Google, recently announced its video-conferencing solution, Google Meet, would be free for everyone, everywhere this month.

According to Google, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to G Suite’s business and education users.

These include features like scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including the expanded tiled view.

VP of G Suite, Javier Soltero, said: “With the lines blurred between work and home, Google Meet can offer the polish needed for a work meeting, a tiled view for your online birthday party and the security needed for a video call with your doctor.”

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Google said it has invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution that’s trusted by schools, governments and enterprises around the world, and in recent months has accelerated the release of top-requested features to make it even more helpful. Whether it’s hospitals supporting patients via telehealth, banks working with loan applicants, retailers assisting customers remotely, or manufacturers interacting safely with warehouse technicians, businesses across every industry are using Meet to stay connected.

For individual users, Google says once the roll out is complete, anyone with an email address will be able to use Meet for free via  meet.google.com  and the Meet mobile apps for iOS  or  Android  to schedule, join or start secure video meetings with anyone—whether it’s a virtual yoga class, weekly book club, neighborhood meeting, or any other reason to connect with others. Using the new Meet experience will require a free Google Account, which only takes a minute to create using work or personal email address of choice.

This step is required as a security measure, and one only needs to sign up once. Meetings are limited to 60 minutes for the free product, though Google says it will not enforce this time limit until after September 30.

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