(Pocket-lint) – Zoom has announced that its usual 40-minute limit for free accounts will be lifted globally on 26 November, to coincide with Thanksgiving Day in the US.
It will allow extended Zoom video calls for all customers from 0:00am (midnight) ET Thursday 26 November, through to 6:00am ET Friday 27 November (coincidentally, Black Friday).
In the UK, that’s from 5am 26 November to 11am the next day.
In a post on Twitter, Zoom said the tme extension was planned “as a thank you to our customers”, and to ensure that “family gatherings don’t get cut short”.
As a thank you to our customers, we will be lifting the 40-minute limit for all meetings globally from midnight ET on Nov. 26 through 6 a.m. ET on Nov. 27 so your family gatherings don’t get cut short. #ZoomTogether pic.twitter.com/aubsH0tfxG
— Zoom (@zoom_us) November 10, 2020
Usually, Zoom limits calls between free accounts to 40-minutes – after which users have to restart a call. Paid users do not have a time limit on calls.
The rise of video calling services and, in particular, Zoom has been extraordinary during these far from ordinary times. The service also won the product of the year category at the recent EE Pocket-lint Awards 2020 – which announced online during a virtual presentation show.
You can check out why it won the award in our round-up of all the winners and highly recommended products right here.
And, if you want to spice up your Zoom calls, you can also find a whole load of Zoom backgrounds to use here.
Writing by Rik Henderson.
