Google Photos original quality tool is on the way

One of the biggest news of the week is the discovery that as of June 2021, Google Photos will no longer offer free backups of your smartphone photos and videos. As David Lieb, Product Manager for Google Photos, made the announcement on TwitterThere were many questions. Fortunately, Lieb actually answered some of them.

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Lieb was able to confirm that an original quality management tool from Google Photos is in the works. With this long-awaited tool, users can easily find the photos and videos in their library that are taking up the most space. Without exception, most of these files are in “Original Quality” rather than the compressed “High Quality” level, which is currently free. Then, with a list of all the photos and videos that apply to your quota, it will be easier to download and / or compress them so that they won’t apply to your quota in June 2021.

Original quality management from Google Photos: the time has come

Yes, this “quota management tool” developed by us helps you to determine what is taking up space. I’m not sure we’ll be disclosing this for every single file you have (that would be complex for most users), but it will definitely identify which things are taking up the most disk space.

– David Lieb ✊🏻🇺🇸 (@dflieb) November 12, 2020

If you go to your Google Photos library today, the app will show you how much space your photos and videos are taking up in their original quality. However, these files are not displayed. You have the option to compress all of them so that they no longer apply to your storage quota. You also can’t organize your files by size to see the largest ones on top.

This is not ideal as it is an all-or-nothing option. What if you backed up a particular photo or video in original quality for a reason? What if you don’t remember when the photo or video was taken, or even can’t remember what it was? It would be a shame if you compress this file and regret it later.

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An original quality management tool from Google Photos would solve this problem. It can’t come too early either, as the deadline for any future June 2021 uploads that violate your storage quota will be here before we know. Until then, it is in the interests of users to extract or compress as many media files as possible in high quality format and as many files in original quality.

Other changes might be on the way as well

Is there a chance Google Photos will offer an additional plan between 2TB and 10TB? 2 TB seems too limiting (especially for video uploads) while 10 TB is overkill (and is more expensive per TB too).

– Andreas Bovens (@andreasbovens) November 11, 2020

In another Twitter thread, David Lieb seemed open to the option of adding more tiers of storage for Google One. Currently, you can subscribe to 100GB, 200GB, 2TB, and 10TB levels. For professional photographers and videographers, the 100GB and 200GB tiers are useless, and the 2TB tier is still a bit low. The 10 TB tier is likely over the top, however. A level between 2 TB and 10 TB would be preferable.

On Twitter, Lieb said That was good feedback. Unfortunately, he hasn’t confirmed whether it’s a work in progress or not.

Hopefully, Google can get all of its ducks in a row before June 2021. An original Google Photos quality management tool is essential for users to kick in this month when all the photos and videos saved don’t count towards their storage quota. More storage options would also be nice. If Google wants to make Photos a paid platform, it needs to make sure it has paid features. The old excuse, “Well, it’s free so we can’t complain” no longer works.