Users will be able to examine this option before July 1 - the last deadline before G Suite users either start paying for Google Workspace or lose much of their data. Google has also directed those users to a survey which asks how they use G Suite. This could be an indication it’s still evaluating how it should design this new no-cost option. Google might not have known that many free users aren’t actually using G Suite’s features for business.
Legacy G Suite users are those who created accounts for the free basic tier of Google’s productivity service before 2012, when the company replaced it with Google Workspace. Free-tier G Suite users could keep using legacy G Suite without paying a subscription. Earlier this month however, Google notified them that they had until May to migrate to Workspace. The company would automatically migrate them on May 1, but not charge them until July 1, at which point it would cancel any users who hadn’t set up a payment plan. Those users could potentially lose data from services like Gmail, Calendar, and Meet, but not YouTube or Google Photos. The survey and recent changes seem to be in response to backlash.
