Free versions of Google Meet limited to 60 minutes

Starting Sept 30, the free verson of Google Meet will be limited to 60 minutes. News reports indicate the pandemic offer of unlimited time won't be extended.

I received an email stating that Google is continuing this promotion through March 31, 2021. You will still be able to do video calls for up to 100 participants and for up to 24 hours for free.

Confirmed. I had to do some hunting, but here's the announcement.

As we look ahead to a holiday season with less travel and important milestones like family reunions, PTA meetings and weddings hosted over video, we want to continue helping those who rely on Meet to stay in touch over the coming months. 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.

We are planning to use Google Meet (Free version) for virtual Sunday School starting in a few weeks. I am curious though about the requirement for all participants to have a Google account and how much of a barrier that might be. If you have gone down this route, has there been resistance to getting a Google Account by some members? Is it ok to require people to have one? Do you find it to be an issue?

Only one member of my ward has told me that he had to create a Google account to connect to Google Meet. However, I know he was connecting to meetings before he created his Google account, so I don't know what changed that prevented him from connecting after a couple weeks. If the creator of the Google Meet event has a G Suite account, then no one should need a Google account to connect to the meeting.

drepouille wrote:If the creator of the Google Meet event has a G Suite account, then no one should need a Google account to connect to the meeting.

I think that's only true if the participants are using desktop or laptop computers.

Can Sunday School teachers get G Suite accounts? Our ward is planning on having multiple classes simultaneously so I’m thinking each teacher would need their own account to be able to let people in to the meetings as host.

wfindlay wrote:Can Sunday School teachers get G Suite accounts?

They are not on the list to get eligible accounts.

To repeat my other post about simultaneous classes, you're making the assumption that all households have enough devices and bandwidth for all members to be in class at the same time.

russellhltn wrote:

wfindlay wrote:Can Sunday School teachers get G Suite accounts?

They are not on the list to get eligible accounts.

To repeat my other post about simultaneous classes, you're making the assumption that all households have enough devices and bandwidth for all members to be in class at the same time.

That is an excellent point. The decision to hold simultaneous classes was made prior to my involvement. I will bring this up though to see if the decision can be revisited. I'm curious if other wards are adding virtual Sunday School meetings and what approach is being taken.

We hold a single Gospel Doctrine class for youth and adults. We rotate all the youth and adult Gospel Doctrine teachers. With two classes per month, and four Gospel Doctrine teachers, it takes two months to rotate through all the teachers.

We have been instructed by our Area Authority (according to our Stake President) that we cannot "duplicate 2nd hr" meetings. We can, however have virtual lessons and virtual study sessions. We have them on different weeknights and scattered through the month (mostly on Thursday evenings) to accommodate families with individuals in more than one group. Per direction from our Stake President, we are not holding these on Sunday to preserve precious Sunday family time. All the ones in our ward have been held via Zoom as I understand.