Google Meet app for video conferencing will now be free for all users

Google wants people using its video chat software so badly, the company is now giving it away.

Starting Wednesday, Google Meet, the Alphabet Inc. company’s teleconferencing app, will be available at no cost. Currently Meet is part of Google’s paid workplace software suite. People can use the service for calls with as many as 100 participants. Google said it will cap free calls at 60 minutes, but won’t begin enforcing that time limit until the end of September.

The free offer is permanent, according to Smita Hashim, director of product for Google Meet. “It’s going to last going forward, just like Gmail,” she said. “Video conferencing has pretty much become an essential service.”