Recognition: Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority
- Google will end free, unlimited photo storage on June 1, 2021.
- It is said that the cost of maintaining the free service is too high.
- Pixel users will still be able to upload free, high quality footage after June.
Google Photos will no longer be the free and easy picture backup service it once was. As The edge According to reports, as of June 1, 2021, Google will no longer have free, unlimited, “high quality” (i.e., slightly compressed) storage space available to all users. The pictures you take will count towards your drive storage limit. You must subscribe to Google One if you run out of space. Photos and videos uploaded before this date are not affected.
Product manager David Lieb explained the end of unlimited free storage as needed, to balance the “primary cost” of serving Google Photos while recognizing the “primary value” of online storage for years of snapshots. In other words, it became too expensive to offer unrestricted backups. The market leader found that users upload 28 billion photos and videos per week and that there are already 4 trillion photos on Google’s servers.
There will be exceptions. Pixel phone users will continue to have unlimited high quality uploads after the June 1st cutoff. While this still limits original-quality uploads, it does give you an incentive to buy (or stick with) a Google phone if photo storage is a critical factor.
Continue reading: Google One against the competition
The company is also taking steps to keep usage in check, although this isn’t always for the better. You have new management tools to help you delete unwanted photos and keep your free service. Google now estimates the usefulness of a storage tier in terms of time rather than raw capacity. However, Google also warns that photos can be deleted if they have been inactive for two years or if they exceed your limit for that period. This isn’t a guarantee that Google will delete precious memories (it warns you first), but you probably want to closely monitor your usage.
Google Docs, Slides, Slides, Drawings, Forms, and Jamboard data are also counted towards your drive cap.
The move isn’t surprising given the amount of photos. Even so, it is already causing complaints that Google is trying to encourage One subscriptions and create headaches for people who count on the free storage of photos as a safety net. This could also drive some users into the arms of the competition. For example, Apple recently launched its own One subscriptions that bundle iCloud storage with services like Apple Music and TV Plus. Individuals who are not deeply invested in the Google ecosystem may decide that Apple One or other cloud storage offerings are better value.