Technology

The US space agency NASA has said that the International Space Station is now upgraded to the lithium-ion battery. It took more than 10 years to upgrade the ISS’ primary power system. Thirteen astronauts conducted 14 spacewalks to replace the old batteries. NASA said that the ISS used the nickel-hydrogen batteries since its launch. The task to upgrade the system started in 2009. A study was conducted to know the risk. The findings said that lithium-ion batteries can be used at the ISS. The program to develop the new battery was approved in 2011. The production started in 2014. In December 2016, the work commenced replacing the power storage system at the research facility.

NASA said that the upgrades will boost the space station’s capability. It will ensure uninterrupted support to astronauts for doing research and develop space technology for future missions. The lithium-ion battery is an advanced technology battery. It only uses lithium ions. It is popular for aerospace applications. The battery is mostly used for portable gadgets. It is also used extensively by car making companies in electric vehicles. It can deliver large amounts of power. The maintenance cost is very low. There is no need for scheduled cycling to maintain life. Their life is very long. Commercial production started in 1991.

Meanwhile, the ISS is now open for business activities. The ISS was launched in 1998. It serves as a base for space agencies to conduct experiments in low-Earth orbit. The latest achievement will help NASA to prepare for future long-duration missions including the Artemis program and then the Mars. NASA said that the new lithium-ion batteries were provided by Boeing. To install one lithium-ion battery and adapter plate at the ISS, astronauts replaced two nickel-hydrogen batteries. ISS orbits 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. It is the largest man-made body in low Earth orbit. The facility is so huge that humans can see it with the naked eye from Earth. Astronauts from 19 countries have visited the ISS since it began operations.

The US space agency NASA has completed a key rocket test for the upcoming Artemis mission. Under this mission, the agency is aiming to send humans to the Moon. According to the agency, it conducted a hot fire of the core stage for the SLS. SLS is a launch system. It is a super heavy-lift rocket. It was announced by NASA in 2011. The SLS is still under the development phase. The SLS will be used by the agency for its Artemis mission. The engines were ignited for nearly eight minutes. It is exactly the same amount of time the rocket will take for a space launch. NASA said that engines were shut down a little more than eight minutes.

NASA said that the engines were not ignited for the full duration. But the team involved in the task gained valuable data that is enough to make the mission’s path forward. The test is an important step towards ensuring that SLS’s core stage is all set for launch. The rocket will be used by NASA for the Artemis 1 mission. It is first in the series of the mission which involves landing humans on the lunar surface for exploration. The mission is proposed to lift off in November 2021. It will be an uncrewed mission. It will be used to certify an Orion spacecraft that will take humans to the surface of Earth’s only natural satellite.

This was the first time when all four engines of the SLS were fired during the core stage. The team ensured the core stage’s structural integrity and recorded the required data to evaluate the system’s performance. NASA under the Artemis mission is aiming to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon’s surface. It is working to send humans to Moon in 2024. The Artemis 2 mission will be launched in August 2023. It will be the first crewed mission of Orion spacecraft. The Orion spacecraft will perform a lunar flyby test before returning to Earth. The third and final Artemis 3 mission will be launched in 2024. The SLS and the Orion spacecraft will carry astronauts to the Moon. NASA wants to set up a base on the Moon and use it for deep exploration of space and Mars.

The outgoing Trump Administration has blacklisted the smartphone maker Xiaomi for ties with the Chinese military. Xiaomi is among 9 companies that have been added to the list of Chinese military companies of the Defense Department. It must be noted that Xiaomi surpassed Apple in terms of smartphone sales in the third quarter. With this, these companies will be banned from American investment. Also, American investors will not be able to buy shares of all these companies. As a result of a recent order signed by the outgoing president, investors owning any shares of these companies are required to sell them before November 11, 2021.

While announcing the update list, the Defence Department said that it is committed to counter the Military-Civil Fusion development strategy of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Defence Department said that it help the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to have access to advanced technologies. “This is done by means of companies and universities who conduct programs that look to civilian.” However, Xiaomi has time and again denied these connections. The smartphone maker reiterated that it will take all necessary steps to safeguard the company and its shareholders. “Xiaomi reiterates that it provides services to civilians and gives products for commercial use. The company would like to assure you that it is neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military.”

Chinese foreign ministry has firmly opposed the new sanctions and said that the move is against the international economic trade rules. “It is totally against the trend of the times.” Later, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that the United States was using all means to suppress Chinese companies. The Ministry also urged America to correct its wrongdoings. The announcement comes close on the heels of the decision to ban 60 Chinese companies. The decision is likely to increase tensions between the two countries. The will become one of the major challenges for the incoming Biden administration which has so far not reacted to the development.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. is in talks with Apple reportedly over working together on developing an electric vehicle. The discussions are in a very early stage and nothing has been finalized yet. Without mention what the talks are about, Hyundai Motor said the tech giant is in talks with various automakers across the globe and Hyundai Motor is one of them. “Nothing has been decided,” the company said. The statement comes after local media reported that Apple has put forward the terms of the tie-up and Hyundai Motor is reviewing it. As per the report, the proposal includes both development of batteries as well as the production of electric vehicles. “The electric vehicle could be launched in 2027,” the report said.

While Hyundai Motor issued a statement on the report, Apple has refused to comment. “We have been getting a lot of queries regarding cooperation for autonomous driving electric vehicles. Discussions are going on but no decisions have been made as they are in a very early stage,” the company said. The development comes days after reports emerged that Apple has been working on developing an electric car under Project Titan. The report quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying that the iPhone maker has set the target of launching its electric car by 2024.

The reports sent shares of Hyundai soaring but prominent Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo feels that the hype is merely speculation. Kuo said that these companies may provide some part for the electric vehicle of Apple. Talking about the launch date, Kuo said that he would not be surprised if Apple fails to launch the vehicle until 2028 or later. He said that this would be a possibility only if Apple starts full-fledged development of the vehicle immediately. Kuo even said that all the specifications of the electric vehicle being developed by the tech giant will be known only by 2022. He also opined that despite having an edge, it is not important that Apple will succeed in new business.

At a time when self-driving cars are considered to be the future of transpiration, Alphabet-owned Waymo has decided to drop the term ‘self-driving.’ The firm said that it has decided to drop the phrase because few automakers are using it erroneously. Waymo said that it will now use the term ‘fully autonomous’ to describe its vehicles. It said that there is a minor difference in language but it means a lot. The company hopes that the change will differentiate it from other competitors. “The change may look very small but it is a very important one. Precision in language matters and could be life-saving as well,” the company said in a blog post.

While Waymo refrained from taking any specific automaker’s name, it is apparent that the move is a dig at rival Tesla. Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker is offering a feature for USD 10,000 that purports to offer ‘full self-driving capability.’ The company is facing heat over it as experts claim that it not only oversells the ability of the technology but also has the potential to create safety issues. Tesla claims that it has all the required hardware and the necessary software for the feature will come later. Experts define a “full self-driving” car as a vehicle wherein the person behind the wheel could safely fall asleep.

Tesla is yet to roll out the “full self-driving” feature for the public but it launched a beta version to some owners in October 2020. Those who have tested the feature are of the view that a lot of work is needed before that requirement of an attentive driver behind the wheel can be removed. Even Tesla has warned drivers to keep their hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road. But Tesla CEO continues to grandiose the feature and had claimed that the company will launch self-driving robotaxis in 2020, which didn’t materialize.

Google is actively working on a new model of the Pixel series. It will be called Pixel 6. The search-engine giant will launch Pixel 6 in 2021. According to a patent filed by the company, Pixel 6 will feature an under-display selfie camera. The patent didn’t go into any detail about the handset. It remains unclear how Google will achieve this. The patent only stated that the camera will be underneath the smartphone’s display. The patent revealed other details about the device. The smartphone will have a basic design. The patent said that the smartphone’s primary camera design and location will remain the same as seen on Pixel 5. The module will come with two sensors. There will an LED flash.

Pixel 6 will be the successor of Pixel 5. Google is planning to launch the smartphone in the second half of 2021. The new device will sport a 6.0-inch display. The display will be a full HD+ OLED screen. The aspect ratio will be 19.5:9. The smartphone will run on Android 11. The handset will be powered by an octa-core Snapdragon processor. The device will come with a storage capacity of 128GB. It will have 8GB RAM. Google is likely to offer a 4,080mAh battery with the device. Besides, Google is also mulling to provide fast-charging support with Pixel 6. Meanwhile, Google said that it is also working on a Pixel 5 Pro. It will probably be launched before Pixel 6 is made available to the public.

Notably, Google is the first company that is working on a smartphone with an under-display selfie camera. Earlier, ZTE had released a smartphone that featured an under-screen camera. Xiaomi and OPPO have also exhibited their prototypes. Samsung is also working on bringing the technology into its products. The South Korean giant is likely to release Galaxy Z Fold 3 with a camera fitted behind the screen. The smartphone is likely to hit the shelves in the second half of 2021.

It has been a fantastic year for video conferencing platform Zoom and it witnessed a 500 rise in stock price during the coronavirus-induced lockdown. The lockdown brought the trend of work from home or remote work and people started using Zoom to connect with each other over a video call. But now the company has decided to foray into new territories, specifically calendar services and email. The company is looking to expand further than the video chat app and has already worked on the email product. According to reports, the company may begin testing as early a web email service Zoom as early as next year. Things are yet not clear about the calendar app and it is not known whether the company has even started working on it.

This seems to be a calculated move by the company and both avenues have good scope to grow. Especially when people will start going to offices and reliance on Zoom will start declining. Use of videoconferencing apps is set to decline with vaccination drive expected to pick up from next year. Zoom has so far not commented on the development. But it is important to understand that most of its biggest competitors have bundled several things. Microsoft and Google are considered to be its biggest rivals. Initially both the companies entered into Zoom’s territory by incorporating features like breakout room. Now Zoom has decided to challenge these tech titans with its own version of email service.

Both Google and Microsoft offer platforms like calendar and email services making Zoom more of a single-purpose platform. The information available suggests that the company is looking to build a full enterprise app suite. It will have features like job postings, an option for chatting, and integration with email. However, some experts believe that the company might opt for a wait and watch strategy and decide anything after analyzing how things change with the shift back to office work. Zoom became extremely popular because of the ease with which each people can use the videoconferencing platform. It became popular among students and teachers after it removed the restriction of 40 minutes time limit on free basic accounts.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has rejected an undertaking by Google regarding the proposed acquisition of Fitbit. ACCC chair Rod Sim said that the watchdog would like to investigate for some more time and will announce its final decision on March 25. Under the undertaking given by Google, the company had promised that it will not use any data collected through the wrist-worn fitness tracking devices and Google wearables for advertisement purposes for at least 10 years. It even proposed that ACCC can extend the duration further by 10 years if it deemed it to be right. The company also said that access to only certain user data will be provided to third parties for 10 years. Along with it, the company also promised to maintain levels of interoperability between Android smartphones and third-party wearables for 10 years as part of the undertaking.

But the watchdog rejected the undertaking. It said the deal is likely to further increase the dominance of Google in online advertising. The ACCC said that even with long term undertaking, the company will continue to have access to user data that will become valuable with time. “The watchdog is concerned that the deal will squeeze out other wearables from the market. This will help Fitbit reduce its competition as other such products are totally dependent on the Android system and other services of Google to make their devices work effectively,”

Acknowledging that a similar undertaking was accepted by the European Commission last week, the ACCC said that further scrutiny was required. It said that such a long-term behavioral undertaking is very difficult to be monitored. Google said that it is extremely disappointed by the decision of the ACCC and will continue to work with it in order to assuage their fear. “We will engage with the watchdog and will respond to all their questions. Google is committed to protecting the privacy of the Fitbit users and the deal was not about data but devices,” a spokesperson of the company said.

Amazon has announced to introduce Luna on Android devices. Luna is a cloud gaming service by the American multinational. The company said that Luna is now available on select Pixel, Samsung, and OnePlus. Users will require downloading Luna app from the Play Store. It said that Android users can also access Luna through the Chrome web browser. After launching the web app, users will have to sign in to start playing. Amazon said that Luna is, however, only available by invitation. It has asked interested users to sign up on the company’s website for early access. Amazon said that it has plans to add support for Luna on more devices.

Luna was launched in October 2020. It was made available on Windows PC and Fire TV. It is also available to Apple users via Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Amazon didn’t add support for Android users. According to Amazon’s version, users do not need gaming consoles or gaming PCs to play games. Users can stream games directly from the cloud. Users only require having a high-speed internet connection. Luna was launched with nearly 100 games. Its monthly subscription is USD 5.99. It runs on Amazon Web Services. Luna is, however, available to subscribers in the United States only. The company is yet to confirm its international release.

With Luna, Amazon aims to take on existing players like Microsoft xCloud, Apple Arcade, and Google Stadia. According to Amazon, the Luna Controller is Alexa-enabled. It connects directly to the cloud. This helps in providing users to control games effortlessly. The company has also removed 20 milliseconds of roundtrip latency. If players want to switch between screens, they can do it easily without requiring additional pairing. Amazon also owns Twitch. It is a video live streaming service. It is among the most popular live streaming services. The company said that Luna is integrated with Twitch. This means if a user changes his mind to play games while watching a show on Twitch, he can switch to Luna immediately.

American over-the-top platform Netflix has announced a new tool to keep a watch on kids’ activity. Netflix said that it will give more control to parents to monitoring what their children are watching on the platform. The new tool is called Kids Activity Report. According to the company, it will start sending emails to parents to tell them about the new tool. Parents who have enabled kids’ accounts on the platform will receive the communication. It will provide them in detail about the feature. Netflix is a hugely popular streaming service across the world. According to its claim, there are over 193 million paid subscribers spread in nearly 190 countries.

Besides streaming TV series, films and documentaries, Netflix also offers shows for kids. The company said that Kids Activity Report will tell parents what type of content their kids are most watching. Apart from having control over the flow of content, the new feature will also tell the parents about their kids’ interests. Back in April, Netflix improved controls to help parents keep a tab on content being watched by kids. The controls were specifically designed to prevent kids from watching adult content. The platform saw a surge in demand during the lockdown. Also, many parents enabled kids’ accounts to keep their children engage during the restrictions.

According to Netflix, parents can PIN protect accounts. They can also filter out titles based on age. They can even remove series or shows by title which according to them is not appropriate for minors. The new tool is available under the profile’s settings option. It has added Profile and Parental Controls. It said that there is also an option available to turn off autoplay of shows. Meanwhile, Netflix said that it has also started testing a Family Profile setting. It will pull in series and movies that users can select as family-friendly. It will, however, appear in one profile only. In another related development, Netflix is currently testing a new vertical feed feature in the US and UK. It is called Fast Laughs.

Uber has decided to sell its self-driving business to an autonomous vehicle startup in a complex deal. Aurora Innovation is not paying any cash for Uber Advanced Technology Group. Uber ATG currently values over USD 7 billion. Companies like Toyota, Vision Fund, and DENSO had invested USD 1 billion in it last year. This is a big development considering the fact that Uber had a few years ago announced that an autonomous vehicle research unit is key to its long term profitability. But this does not mean that the ride-hailing service provider has given up its promise of an autonomous vehicle. Uber will still be investing USD 400 million in Aurora.

Moreover, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will also be one of the startup’s board of directors. Aurora Innovations is founded by the former head engineer of Google’s self-driving car project. The deal puts an end to Uber’s dream of having autonomous driving vehicles in place of human-powered taxis. The deal also brings uncertainty over the job security of the employees as it is yet not clear whether Aurora will retain all of them or not. The deal may result in layoffs but an Uber spokesperson said that Aurora has committed to offering jobs to the majority of Uber ATG employees. “We are working out a plan with the officials of Aurora and will soon notify our teams,” the spokesperson added.

Uber was confident that spending millions of dollars on the ambitious dream will help it replace the fleet of human-powered taxis. Drivers are the main cost factor of the company and Uber was investing in this technology to eliminate this expense. Uber was working on it with the aim of taking over the world of transportation and provide cheaper options to its customers. But the company faced many obstacles and was even accused of stealing trade secrets of Google offshoot Waymo. Both companies reached a settlement but Anthony Levandowski, a former engineer of Uber, was recently sentenced to a jail term of 18 months for the crime. More troubling than that was an accident in 2018. A woman lost her life after being struck by an autonomous Uber vehicle. Her death was the first known fatality by a self-driving vehicle.

Astronomers have claimed to capture large shadows formed around a massive black hole. They said that the effect was created after light got leaked by the dust disk. The latest discovery was made using the data transmitted by the Hubble Space Telescope. The astronomical observatory was launched by the US space agency NASA in 1990. The telescope has made some unexpected discoveries in the last three decades. The shadows stretch in each direction for at least 36,000 light-years. It was spotted nearby an active galaxy IC 5063. It is almost 156 million light-years away from Earth. Astronomers said that the latest discovery is evidence that there is dust all over the galaxy.

Researchers said that the supermassive black hole was blocked with the dense patches of dust and the light couldn’t make the way. However, the light got leaked and was captured by the NASA telescope. Astronomers said that the galaxy got merged with another galaxy recently. This predicted that its merger could have caused dust everywhere and the light was blocked by the dust ring. There is another possibility that the black hole jets kicked up dust. The photo used by the astronomers to make the discovery was captured by the telescope on November 25 last year. Harvard astronomer Peter Maksym said that this is something that the community has never seen before.

Astronomers added that the shadows are evidence that IC 5063’s disk could be very thin. This possibility cannot be ruled out completely and could be a factor behind the leakage of the light. The marvelous image showed a mixture of bright rays and dark shadows. The shadows are of the dust around the black hole. The disks are located far and it is impossible to find out more detail for the scientists. The views appear to be similar to sunset on Earth. Although scientists are studying the galaxy for a long, it took a team of astronomers to make the stunning discovery.

Tech giant Apple is expanding its footprints as it plans to leap in an online search. The company is believed to be ramping up its efforts to build a search engine. It aims to provide an alternative to Google Search. Google’s online search tool is the world’s most used search engine. It covers over 90 percent of the market share. According to an estimate, the search engine handles nearly 5.5 billion searches on a daily basis. Apple’s decision is believed to be influenced after Google’s search engine came under antitrust scrutiny in the United States. Reports say that Apple is aggressively working on the project.

Notably, Apple has started to display its website search results on iOS 14. iPhone users have reported that when they type to search from the home screen, they are delivered with Apple’s website search results. The company has dedicated a separate team that is developing an in-house search engine. Apple had in December 2018 hired John Giannandrea who led Google Search. John joined Apple with a wealth of experience. He is believed to be playing a pivotal role in Apple’s project. Google’s search engine is iPhone’s default search tool. The company pays Apple around USD 12 billion every year to be the iPhone’s default search tool.

Apple’s move is significant as it comes in the backdrop of a lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit was filed by the US Justice Department and 11 states. They alleged that Google marred competition and harmed consumers with its dominance in search and advertising. Soon after this, Google announced a series of upgrades to soothe regulators. In case the antitrust scrutiny bars Google, Apple’s efforts in developing its search engine will pay off. Even if Google manages to escape, Apple will be in a position to easily terminate its reliance on Google. Google is also facing heat from several quarters for promoting its own products on the platform. Google has repeatedly claimed that its services are beneficial for consumers.

Search engine giant Google has promised to bring a comprehensive safety feature in apps on its platform. This will send alerts to users about issues within apps. According to Google, the new feature will automatically send alerts in case of any suspicious attack or malware. These alerts will tell people about the critical issues, if any, within the apps on its platform. This way, the company said, it will assist people to address their concerns and make their device safe and secure. Users will no longer require to checking their phone alerts or email separately in case of a hack or a compromise. Google said that the alerts are resistant to spoofing. It added that a user receiving alerts can be pretty sure that the company is sending these notifications.

At present, Google said that it uses Android alerts to inform users about such issues in apps. It sends alerts to their Google Accounts. According to the company, it will begin with a limited rollout of the feature. It will expand the feature next year. Google observed that people get engaged with such alerts within an hour of receiving them. It said that there is at least a 20-fold increase in the number of users who notice these notifications. But in the case of an email alert, users often notice such notifications lately. There are high chances of users skipping such emails as well.

According to Google, the Safety Centre is now live in the United States. It will be expanded globally soon. Google claims that it blocks over 100 million phishing attempts daily. It said that measures by the company help protect four billion devices for safe browsing. Its Google Play Protect algorithm protects users from becoming vulnerable to such attacks. It scans over 100 billion apps for suspected malware and critical issues daily. Google Play Protect is the company’s security services for the Android platform. Google said that it addresses nearly three million privacy and security questions every month worldwide. The company said that Google is planning to generate Smart Replies in Android 11 as well.

Facebook has promoted one of its long term executives to fill the position of chief marketing officer. Former vice president of product growth and data analytics Alex Schultz has been promoted to fill the post of Antonio Lucio. Schultz is one of the oldest executives and has been in the company since 2007. The position has been lying vacant after Lucio announced his resignation last month. He had joined the popular social media platform in 2018 after leaving HP. While leaving Facebook, Lucio said that he took this step to dedicated 100 per cent of his time to ‘diversity, inclusion, and equity.’

Schultz has been one of the key executives of growth and data analytics. The move will bring the company’s marketing efforts and user growth under one person as he will continue in the role to work in the role of data crunching. Announcing the development on Facebook, Schultz said that he will try to use his experience in targeting, segmentation, and measurement to extend the massive reach of the company. Schultz is an executive sponsor of the LGBTQ resource group of the company. He added a personal note in the post saying Facebook is the first place where he has found that it is safe to be gay.

Schultz is part of the important growth team of the company and has been responsible for expanding into new markets and adding users. He was also one of the members of the group that compiled the company’s quarterly reports highlighting efforts needed to fight hate speech content on the platform. Some of the highest priority projects of Mark Zuckerberg are being handled by him. He was also given the responsibility of analyzing whether success Instagram was hampering the growth of Facebook in 2017. However, he is not a traditional chief marketing officer but his promotion to the post points out that may be the company is willing to take a more analytical approach while promoting its products.

Search engine giant Google has introduced a new logo for a number of its products. Google’s hugely popular mailing service Gmail has also got a new logo. It has replaced Gmail’s envelope logo with an ‘M’ sign. The new logo, however, features the company’s four core brand colors — red, yellow, green, and blue. The new logo is said to be more in sync with the design of the company’s numerous products. Google has also overhauled the logo of its Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Meet. Google’s decision to bring new icons for its services is a part of the company rebranding.

According to Google, it is working to bring all the services and apps under one umbrella. The company said that it is also renaming GSuite to Google Workspace. All the apps will come under the ambit of Google Workplace. Google believes that bringing its services on a single platform will enhance productivity and collaboration. It noted that people want to collaborate on one platform and communicate. The company said that Google Workspace is the right step towards giving people a familiar and a fully integrated experience. It said that Google Workspace will offer the company’s core tools like chat, email, and content management among others.

Google said that with this integration, users will be able to preview the linked content in a single file. They don’t require leaving the original document. It will save their switching time. Besides, it will allow them more time to get the work done. When users mention a topic or someone in a document, Google said that a popup will appear with details. It will suggest actions like sharing the document. This way, users can dynamically create and collaborate on a file. This will help reduce complexity and make sure that everyone in the team can see the relevant information. According to Google, more than 2.6 billion consumers every month opt for its collaboration apps. It has nearly 6 million business customers who pay for Google Workspace.

Tech giant Google has announced a key change to its Google Meet services. The company said that it will no longer provide unlimited video meet through Google Meet. The company had in April allowed unlimited video meet because of the pandemic. The company said that video chat on the free versions of Google Meet will be restricted to 60 minutes. The decision will come into effect after September 30. The company had way back in April announced that the unlimited video chat on the free versions was a temporary decision and it will be seized after September. There will be no extension in the unlimited services, meaning Google Meet users won’t be able to create free meetings.

During the five months window, Google Meet allowed users to create free meetings with up to 100 people. There was no restriction on the duration of the meetings. Besides, Google had also permitted all G Suite customers to access Meet’s advanced features for free. This will also be discontinued after September. The company will also block access to advanced features for G Suite and G Suite for Education customers after September. The company allowed meetings of up to 250 people and live-streams of up to 100,000 people in a single domain. Users were able to save recordings of meetings to the Google drive.

Google charges for providing these features to anyone. It offers these services to customers on the G Suite enterprise tier. The monthly charge per user is approximately USD 25. This was the first time Google was providing access to the service to personal Google accounts. According to Google, Google Meet grew manifold since early this year. It saw 100 million users accessing its services. Google in 2017 developed its video-communication service Google Meet. It was brought by the search engine giant as a replacement for Google Hangouts. Google has just launched a new feature in the Google Meet app, allowing users to chat with 49 people at the same time.