Video conferencing has become bigger than ever over the past few weeks, and so Google is responding by making its Meet video calling service available to everyone.

Google Meet is now free to everyone after previously being a premium service offered to G Suite business and education users. You will need a Google Account to use Meet, a requirement that's meant to make the service more secure and prevent anonymous individuals from joining meetings.

Google is taking other steps to ensure that Meet video calls are safe and secure. For example, hosts have controls to admit or deny entry to a meeting and mute or remove participants if needed, and Google says its Meet meeting codes are complex and resilient to brute force guessing. Additionally, Google Meet doesn't require plugins on the web and it has dedicated apps on Android and iOS.

Starting next week, you'll be able to go to meet.google.com and begin creating meetings. Google does says that it plans to gradually roll out Meet's availability over the coming weeks to help make sure to service works reliably for everyone. You can sign up here to be notified when Google Meet becomes available to you. 

One other detail worth knowing about Google Meet is that meetings using the free version of the service are limited to 60 minutes. However, Google won't begin enforcing this time limit until after September 30.

With many people sheltering at home to fight the spread of the coronavirus, we've seen a huge spike in the use of video calling services. Google already offers its Duo video calling product, but that's limited to just 12 participants while Meet supports up to 100 people in a video conference. Zoom is another popular video calling service that's exploded recently, and Google's decision to make Meet free to everyone may be in part a response to that huge growth.