Zoom has certainly had a pretty monumental year thanks to most of the world being forced into lockdown due to the Covid pandemic. This video chat app has helped many of us stay in touch throughout 2020 and, as a way to say thank you to all of its loyal fans, Zoom is offering a treat for one day only.
To help those in the US stay connected during the Thanksgiving celebrations, Zoom has confirmed that its users can talk for as long as they like without needing to upgrade their account.
That means there’s no 40-minute limit to spoil your family quiz or interrupt a catch up with your friends.
“As a thank you to our customers, we will be lifting the 40-minute limit for all meetings globally from midnight ET on Nov. 26 through 6 a.m. ET on Nov. 27 so your family gatherings don’t get cut short,” said the firm on Twitter.
To get this totally unlimited talk time, Zoom usually charges at least £119 per year but that’s been scrapped for the next 24-hours.
READ MORE: Google Meet catches up with Zoom and Microsoft Teams by adding much-demanded feature
Although this free offer is clearly aimed at US users it should mean everyone around the world can join in the virtual fun. Replying to one user on Twitter, Zoom confirmed that “Yes! This is for all users, even those who are joining the meeting without having a Zoom account.”
Along with Thanksgiving, it’s also rumoured that Zoom will offer the same 24-hours of free unlimited calls over Christmas although this has yet to be confirmed.
The move from Zoom to offer longer video calls without paying follows a similar announcement from Microsoft Teams.
The Redmond firm recently announced that to help its users “stay connected” meetings in Teams will be able to run for a whopping 24 hours.
Revealing the change, the Redmond-based tech giant said: “To help you stay connected in the coming months, you will be able to meet for 24 hours with up to 300 participants until further specified”.
There’s no word on when these free and unlimited Microsoft Teams meetings will come to end but Microsoft is definitely beating Zoom by offering the incentive for longer than a day.
Google is yet to make any changes to its Meet time limit which is currently set a one hour.
