Over the past couple of months, video calling services have become a new trend, surpassing even instant messengers in terms of distribution speed. But if the growth of the audience of instant messengers was systematic and organic, then services such as Zoom, FaceTime, Skype and others experienced an explosive jump in popularity. As a result, both WhatsApp and Telegram announced their intention to occupy this niche, and they couldn't lose users. I could not pass by Google, which also decided to join the new wave, opening up access to its Meet service for everyone.
Google Meet is now free. Hooray!
While the Google Meet video calling service has existed in the past, until now it has only been available to premium G Suite subscribers, which are typically preferred by corporate users. Now the company has decided to open it for those who do not pay for account maintenance. All you need to participate in video calls is an active Google account. Thanks to it, users will be able to both convene video conferences on their own and join existing ones.
How Google Meet works
Google Meet works both on the web and in the app
However, free access to Google Meet will have some restrictions. First, users will be able to call video conferences for up to 100 participants. And, secondly, the maximum length of one call will be limited to one hour. After that, the call will be automatically ended, and the participants will have to call again to continue. This is done on purpose so that the service is not abused by corporate users who, through Meet, hold long meetings in a remote environment.
Early on, free access to Google Meet will be rolled out to users gradually. Obviously, in this way, Google is simply limiting the load on its servers that provide the service in order to avoid a massive influx of people who want to test video calls. Therefore, if you are interested in using Google Meet, we recommend that you visit the service website from time to time and check its availability. And if you want to use it on a mobile device, just install the Google Meet app from Google Play.
How Meet differs from Duo
Google Duo is better for home use than Meet
Whether it is worth using Google Meet with Google Duo is up to everyone. In general, initially Meet is a corporate service with all the attendant gadgets like a large number of participants, recording a meeting with subsequent saving in Google Drive, and so on. Therefore, if your goal is just to chat with family and friends of no more than 12 people, choose Google Duo and don’t bother, especially since it is already available for free. However, for corporate purposes, Meet is better suited.
I chose Duo for myself, which I have been using for several months. In my opinion, this is an excellent video call service, which provides not only high quality pictures, but also has many convenient functions for household calls. For example, it allows you to keep the speaker's face as close as possible to the middle of the frame, no matter how you twist your smartphone, it has support for night mode, brightening the picture when used in low light conditions, and even a traffic saving mode, which helps out great at the end of the month, when the tariff is -that should be updated.