When Google announced at the start of the year that it was terminating the usage of the G Suite legacy free edition — a program that enabled users to use Gmail, Drive, and other G Apps on a custom domain for free — it gave some customers the jitters.
Cut to mid-May, and users who opted to wait Google out now find that their want of decisiveness has been vindicated, as Google has determined that people who are not businesses can keep what they have.
Google announced that starting June 27, 2022; the G Suite legacy free edition will no longer be available for enterprises.
How is this backtracking by Google going to affect you?
The search giant also said that you could opt-out of the move to Google Workspace if you’re using the G Suite legacy free edition for non-commercial activities.
You can preserve your custom domain with Gmail and access free Google services like Google Drive and Google Meet and your purchases and data. Users will be happy to hear they can keep accessing content that they paid for and data they stored on Workspace, which was the cause of the jitters in the first place.
Users’ accounts will be suspended on August 1 if they do nothing, after which they can reactivate by switching to Workspace or opting out.
Some commercial features may be removed in the future
Google advises that the legacy free product is unsupported and that some commercial features may be removed in the future.
The Google support chatbot can downgrade customers back to G Suite’s classic free edition to cater to the proactive users who upgraded to Workspace after January 19.
Those who have already left the Google network should be able to stay on the free edition, although reversing direction will involve more effort than filling out a form.
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