Don’t worry, your legacy G Suite account still isn’t moving to Google Workspace
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After fight tooth and nail to maintain access to G Suite’s legacy free tools instead of being moved to a paid one Google Workspace plan after an announcement in January 2022, some Google users were recently shocked.
G Suite was a free iteration of Workspace, Google’s collaboration softwareoffer for free email hosting, and, crucially, custom domains, from 2006 to 2012. Accounts created during this period are currently “grandfathered” into the service, meaning their owners don’t have to pay any additional fees while retaining all the benefits.
After Google went back on charging users for Workspace in 2022, G Suite users had to promise Google with a little finger that they didn’t intend to use their account for business use, and the matter seemed to be resolved after that.
Legacy G Suite transitions, or lack thereof
However, in February 2023, a notification began appearing to users claiming that “the transition to Google Workspace has begun,” implying that the tech giant had started on its way back.
users were initially confused, but luckily this turns out to be a mistake. A Google spokesperson claimed in a statement to Ars Technica (opens in new tab) that the issue is a bug, and that “those who have previously opted in for personal use are not expected to take any further action.”
Still, when clicked, the notification appears to point to a new service, “Google Workspace for personal use,” which doesn’t exist.
The same Google spokesperson also confirmed that users inadvertently saw beta branding last year with the intent to scrap obsolete G Suite accounts, and so the whole debacle appears to be a wild goose chase – until the idea presumably pops back into their heads.