Family and friends separated by the Covid-19 pandemic on Christmas and New Years will not have their virtual celebrations on Zoom interrupted by the 40-minute limit for users with free accounts.
Zoom Video Communications, whose technology became commonplace at family gatherings in the social distancing world in 2020, said it is lifting that limit worldwide.
The coronavirus pandemic has broken global records in the past few weeks, forcing many people to stay home and plan meetings with friends and family over the internet.
“Whether you are celebrating the last day of Hanukkah, Christmas, the New Year or the last days of Kwanzaa, those who connect with friends and family are not interrupted,” said a spokesman for Zoom.
According to Alphabet’s Google Meet, users with free accounts wouldn’t have to limit the conversation to 60 minutes by March.
The teams at Microsoft and Webex at Cisco, which also saw usage spikes during the pandemic, have not yet announced any actions related to platform time limits.