Google Meet extends 24-hour video calls for free till March 31

Google's video communication platform Google Meet is extending its 24-hour video calls policy in its free version till March 31, 2021.

"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 wrote in a blog post.

Earlier this week, Google Meet set the maximum meeting duration for free video calls under its free plan to 60 minutes from October 1, 2020.

Also read: Google Meet to limit meeting duration to 60 minutes under free plan from October 1

However, Google had confirmed to The Verge that it will not be extending the deadline for advanced G-suite features like allowing meetings of up to 250 participants, live streams in a single domain of up to 1 lakh people, and the ability to save meeting recordings to Google Drive.

Google Meet is one of two apps, the other being Google Chat, developed by Google to replace Google Hangouts.

Recently, features like noise cancellation, background blur, 49-person grid view, and Chromecast were added to Google Meet. Video-conferencing platforms have seen a surge in users over the past few months as people across the world are working remotely due to Covid-19.