It was a good run for Google Meet’s unlimited-duration group calls for free users of the service, but Google’s seen fit to dial back the settings and enforce time limits for Google Meet calls with at least three people on the line.

A support page for Google Meet now mentions that free Google Meet users can host “Calls with 3 or more participants for up to 60 minutes.”

At the 55-minute mark, Google Meet will alert participants that the call is nearing its end. Once the 60 minutes are up, the call will stop, and users will need to set up a new call and Meet link to continue the virtual discussion. this is perhaps a minor inconvenience for smaller groups, but is probably more problematic for larger meetups.

Free Google Meet users will also be able to have one-on-one calls that last up to 24 hours, which is still nice.

In its report on Monday, July 12, 9to5 Google saw the writing on the wall for the reimplementation of call limits for Meet groups.

Google Meet went live for everyone in April 2020, and call restrictions were not supposed to be enforced till September of 2020. It was then extended all the way to June 30, which leads into the present reimplementation of the limits.

Users who want to have the same large meetings without the call restrictions will likely need to see if their office or school supports Google Workplace, or buy into the Google Workspace Individual subscription setup, which has limited country availability. – Rappler.com