How to save your free GSuite account
In May, Google finally told these users what would happen to their accounts. The new support page says, “For individuals and families using your account for non-commercial purposes, you can continue using the G Suite legacy free edition and opt out of the transition to Google Workspace.” The link for that is here or in your GSuite admin panel. You’ll need to confirm that your GSuite account is for personal use, and not business use, because businesses are still expected to pay for Workspace. If you already bent to Google’s will and started paying for Workspace because of the January announcement, Google says you should contact support.
That bottom “Personal use” button is what you want.
Credit: Lee Hutchinson
That bottom “Personal use” button is what you want. Credit: Lee Hutchinson
The biggest news from this latest announcement is that Google has decided against taking people’s custom email away. A second support page says, “You can continue using your custom domain with Gmail, retain access to no-cost Google services such as Google Drive and Google Meet, and keep your purchases and data.” It now sounds like there will be no changes to your account, provided you click through the “self-transition” screen before the deadline.
The deadline to opt out of an account shutdown, which has changed several times now, is June 27, 2022. If you don’t complete this opt out by June 27, you will be automatically billed for Workspace. If you don’t have a card on file and don’t opt out, your account will be suspended on August 1 and shut down.
The automatic enrollment and billing, without explicit user consent, is one of the wilder parts of this story. If you don’t closely follow the tech news scene, there’s a good chance you won’t know this is coming, and you will either suddenly be billed without your consent or find that your Google account has suddenly stopped working.
For a company whose key business pillar is convincing users to store vast amounts of data on its servers, playing games like this is a bizarre decision. At least it came to a reasonable conclusion.