G Suite legacy free-edition users were supposed to start paying for Workspace in April, but Google delayed it. In a significant policy shift, the business will now allow users to stay on a “Free Legacy Edition of G Suite for personal use” as a “no-cost” alternative.
This “free” option is for users who don’t want to pay for Workspace but still want access to their data rather than having to export it via Google Takeout. People have been waiting to join a queue for this alternative for several months.
Most significantly, users can “continue to use your domain with Gmail,” contrary to popular belief that they will be forced to use a free @gmail.com address. Google surveyed in January to discover how many customers with 10 or fewer accounts utilized the legacy product “for personal usage or to manage my family.”
The users still have free access to Google Workspace services like Google Drive and Google Meet, as well as other Google services like Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube.
The paid content, such as movie purchases on Google Play and data kept on Google Workspace, will remain accessible.
Users must, however, tell Google that they’ll use it “for non-commercial personal use only.”
Users have until June 27 to make a user decision.
After all, Google simply wants businesses to pay for Workspace. There would have been far less uncertainty if the corporation had recognized the extent of personal usage and exempted those old users from the start.