COVID-19: Google Hangouts Meet features free

As more businesses are impacted by travel restrictions or are encouraging their employees to work from home in response to the spread of COVID-19. Starting this week, Google will begin rolling out free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities. This apply to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers, globally including:

  • Larger meetings for up to 250 participants per call
  • Live streaming for up to 100K viewers within domain
  • Record meetings to Google Drive

These features are typically only available in the Enterprise and Enterprise for Education editions of G Suite. And will be available to all customers until July 1, 2020. As a Google Cloud and GSuite Partner, we are committed to supporting your business during this challenging time. Helping you to scale and ensure streamlined, reliable access throughout this period.

What is happening?

Customers that have the G Suite Basic or Business edition, will soon be able to access advanced Hangouts Meet capabilities for their domain, free of charge, through July 1, 2020. Advanced Meet features include the ability to host larger meetings with up to 250 participants per call. Live streaming of meetings for up to 100k viewers within your domain, and the ability to record a meeting* to Drive. After July 1, these domains will revert back to Basic or Business edition functionality for Hangouts Meet.

What do I need to do?

As these features are set to OFF by default, advanced Meet features will need to be enabled through the Admin console. Please contact Renova Cloud’s support team to first enable Hangouts Meet video calls and then advanced Meet features for your organization. Below are instructions outlined as well:

  1. From the Admin console Home page, go to Apps > G Suite > Settings for Google Hangouts
  2. Click Meet Settings
  3. Check the edit icon on the right side of the “Additional Services” box
  4. Scroll down and check the box that says “Let users place video and voice calls.”
  5. In the same screen, turn on other advanced settings for live streaming and meeting recording.
  6. Click Save

To help you get the most out of video meetings, access to G Suite Learning Center which includes training resources such as a Meet quickstart guide and tips for working remotely.

Note: Hangouts Meet meeting recordings are stored in Drive and count towards the customers’ Drive storage limits.