Google Workspace Essentials Starter Edition Launched
In a recent blog post, Google revealed that the Workspace Essentials Starter Edition allows users to sign up with their existing work email to access Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Google Chat (with Spaces), and Google Meet.
While the new plan does not include Gmail, it allows users who already have a work email account to access Google’s productivity tools for improved collaboration. The idea is to help businesses easily access modern productivity apps without the hassle of “new email address, file conversions, new plug-ins, or desktop software.“
The start plan’s storage is limited to 15GB but users will be able to call up to 100 people and have meetings of up to 60 minutes using Google Meet.
As mentioned earlier, the USP of the new Workspace plan is that it is completely free for users and has “no limited trial period.” Plus, users will not require any credit card to sign up for the plan. Hence, users with existing work emails will be able to access these apps to improve communication and productivity entirely for free.
“The new Google Workspace Essentials Starter Edition is a no-cost solution for business users looking to enhance teamwork and unlock innovation with secure-by-design collaboration. With Essentials Starter, we’re making it easy for employees to choose their own productivity tools and bring modern collaboration to work,” wrote Kelly Waldher, the VP of Marketing at Google Workspace.
The plan allows a team of up to 25 members to sign up, although Google’s support page mentions an unlimited number of members of an organization would be able to sign up to access the tools. Google says that the new Workspace Essentials Starter Edition plan is currently rolling out “over a multiple-week period”. However, it might not be available for users in some regions until mid-February 2022.
This new Workspace plan has been launched after Google recently discontinued support for free legacy G Suite accounts, which forced users to go for a paid plan. The new Workspace can thus, act as a sigh of relief for users!
