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Google announced on its blog that it is making Google Meet, its video conferencing product, free for everyone in response to the recent Zoom boom. The service will be available to use “in the coming weeks,” according to Google.
Previously, Google Meet was restricted to G Suite for businesses and schools. G Suite is made up of other communication features like Gmail and Hangouts, storage features and tools like Documents and Presentations for productivity, and it’s a paid plan of up to $ 25 per person per month if used for business. However, G Suite for Schools and Nonprofits can be used for free.
“We have invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution trusted by schools, governments and businesses around the world. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can subscribe to Meet and Enjoy many of the same features available to our business and educational users, such as simple programming and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts to suit your preferences, including an expanded tiled view, “wrote the Vice President and General Manager of G Suite, Javier Soltero.
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What a “Google Meeting” would look like.
Source: Google Blog
How secure is Google Meet?
Google emphasizes how “privacy and security are paramount” for Meet, and starting last week, Meet’s daily meeting participants exceeded 100 million and added approximately 3 million new users each day. They designed Google Meet to operate on a “secure basis”, providing data security and maintaining the privacy of user information. Here are his security measures, according to his blog:
- Provide a robust set of host controls, such as the ability to admit or deny entry to a meeting, and mute or remove participants, if necessary.
- It does not allow anonymous users (that is, without a Google account) to join meetings created by individual accounts.
- Meet meeting codes are complex by default and therefore resistant to brute force “guesswork”.
- Meet video meetings are encrypted in transit, and all recordings stored on Google Drive are encrypted in transit and at rest.
- They do not require plugins to use Meet on the web. It works fully in Chrome and other modern browsers.
- On mobile devices, they have dedicated Google Meet apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
- Users can enroll their account in Google’s Advanced Protection Program, to protect themselves against phishing and account hijacking.
- Google Cloud regularly undergoes rigorous security and privacy audits for all of its services.
- Meet data is not used for advertising and we do not sell your data to third parties.
Strict emphasis on user security addresses concerns related to Zoom’s security and privacy concerns. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan went as far as sending a message to Zoom users on the company’s blog apologizing for “breaching” the necessary standards, such as reports from “Zoom-bombardment” where trolls join rooms to transmit inappropriate content and even the possible loss of Windows credentials.
How to sign up for Meet
As Google previously mentioned, the service will only reach everyone in the coming weeks. Currently in Malaysia, it is not yet available to individual users, but the page announces that “Google Meet will be available for free soon.” When you can access the function, the page will look like the second image below.
Here’s how you can ensure you get access to it as soon as it’s available in Malaysia:
- Make sure you are registered as a Gmail user. You can register for free.
- If you prefer to use your mobile phone, download the Google Meet app for iOS or Android.
- Click here to register and be notified when you can start using Meet for free.
- Click on “Personal Use” or “Commercial Use” depending on your needs.
- Enter your details in the form provided and click “Submit”.
Once you receive a notification in the coming weeks, you can access the Google Meet site, log in with your Gmail account to access the feature. Meetings are limited to just 60 minutes if you access Google Meet for free, but Google won’t apply this time limit until after September 30. Google also offers G Suite customers access to Meet’s advanced features, such as live streaming to 100,000 viewers within a domain through September 30.
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