Both Microsoft and Google have made their premium conferencing software available for free for a limited time to anyone who needs it.

Hangouts: Google announced that it would be providing free access to advanced video conferencing features within Hangouts for both Gsuite and Gsuite for Education users. This will allow for up to 250 participants per call, live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a specific domain, and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive. This will remain available until July 1, 2020.

Teams: According to The Verge , Microsoft plans to offer a free six-month trial of the premium tier of its Teams software (which was originally offered to help schools, businesses, and hospitals in China set up the platform). Businesses will have to work with someone at Microsoft (or a partner) to set this up; it’s not readily available to individuals. Microsoft also plans to lift limits on the number of users who can be added to Teams, and to add scheduling features.

The gist: Google has already told its entire North American workforce to work from home, while Microsoft has encouraged its global employees to do the same. It also makes business sense to offer paid access to their respective conferencing suites: Business leaders might switch to Teams or Hangouts after months of using them with their own employees.