Google Meet, Google's premium video conferencing service, will be made available free of charge to all users to compete with Zoom and provide a new way for people to stay in touch during the coronavirus pandemic.

Google Meet has been the realm of video calling for businesses that heavily use Google's G Suite. But now the search giant is switching gears and opening up Meet.

"Today, we're making Google Meet, Google's premium video conferencing product, available to everyone for free. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to business and educational users, including easy scheduling, screen sharing, real-time captioning, and a layout tailored to your preferences, including an expanded tiled view

Meet is a great way to meet people and to share information with others.

Those interested in Meet will have to wait until Google notifies them that the service is ready. Soltero said the phased rollout is to keep Meet users safe and secure and to ensure that they get a reliable experience from the service.

While the likes of Zoom and Houseparty have become popular tools for groups to keep in touch during coronavirus containment and social distance exercises, Google Meet is an effective alternative to Zoom.

In fact, Google has extended the service's functionality, taking cues from some of Zoom's features and integrating them into its user interface. For example, Meet now has a Zoom-like layout, but also has the ace in the hole of integration with Gmail, making it easier to set up video calls.

Meet has other great features, such as the ability to live stream to up to 100,000 viewers in a user's domain. This is useful for up-and-coming full-time rock stars and aspiring comedians.

There is a small caveat that with the free Meet service, meetings are limited to 60 minutes in length. However, Google does not intend to enforce this limit until after September 30.