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Well, it finally happened. Google today announced that its hugely popular Google Photos app will lose its free, unlimited storage space next year. With a product that has been thrown in the public eye on that promise, is it still worth using now that free storage is a thing of the past?
Since its inception 5 years ago, Google Photos has offered completely unlimited storage space, free for everyone. The only problem? The photos were compressed, but in a way most people could barely notice. It was a victory for everyone!
The promise of free storage has always been “forever,” but now there is an expiration date. On June 1, 2021, all new video photos saved to Photos will count toward the 15GB of free storage that all Google users enjoy. Beyond that, you’ll need to purchase a Google One subscription to get 100GB, 200GB, or 2TB and above storage that applies to Photos, Drive, and all the Google products you use.
Really, it was inevitable. Storage isn’t free, and with over a billion people backing up new pictures and videos daily, even a few megabytes per person adds up to an amount of storage the average person can’t figure out.
So now that Google Photos will finally cost Something for everyone, is it still worth using? For Android users, I feel like the argument is pretty straightforward. Google Photos is preloaded and works great on the platform. The countless features like shared albums, link sharing, auto save, free up storage space, and a print shop are things you just can’t find on most other services. Amazon offers free unlimited storage for Prime members, but I think Google Photos has a better overall feature set that will keep a lot of people on board despite paying for it.
The conversation is very different on iOS, however. There, Google Photos has to be installed manually, and for many people, requires the creation of an account. Photos also don’t perform as well on iOS due to platform restrictions on background apps (one conversation for another day). Meanwhile, Apple’s iCloud Backup is natively integrated with the photos app and backs up photos from the moment someone gets their phone. It offers a lot less storage, but for users who aren’t very tech-savvy, Google Photos is a harder sell.
With a year to make a full decision, what do you think? Is Google Photos Still Worth It? Are you going to switch to another service? Vote in the poll below!
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Personally, I think Google Photos is still worth it. The functionality of the service is second to none and you already get 15 GB of free storage. Plus, when you start paying for storage, it’s shared between Photos, Drive, and Gmail, and you can even share that storage with your whole family. Paying for a product that was once free sucks absolutely bad, but with Photos it’s still worth it.
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