Google One: Photo Features, Storage Plans, VPN Service, and Everything You Need to Know

Google One is a paid subscription storage model offered by Google, and with the unlimited free storage on Google Photos now being announced to be coming to an end, it’s something people will have to explore further. It was first launched in 2018 in the US and then it was brought to many other countries, including India. Google One is essentially the tech giant’s counterattack for Apple’s iCloud and offers features like additional storage, family sharing, and much more. Google has also recently introduced new features for Google One premium members, including a VPN service for Android users in the US.

Here’s a guide to what Google One offers, all the new features that have been introduced, and everything you need to know about it.

Price of Google One storage plans in India, US

In India, Google One membership plans are priced at Rs. 130 per month (Rs. 1,300 per year) for 100GB of storage, Rs. 210 per month (Rs. 2,100 per year) for 200GB of storage, Rs. 650 per month (6,500 rupees per year) for 2TB of storage, Rs. 3,250 per month for 10 TB of storage, Rs. 6,500 per month for 20TB of storage and Rs. 9,750 per month for 30 TB of storage. The Google One application offers a complete distribution of your storage and the amount of space used. Users get 15GB of free data, after which they will need to purchase a Google One subscription to continue saving data to the cloud.

In the US, the Google One membership is priced at $ 1.99 per month ($ 19.99 per year) for 100GB of storage, $ 2.99 per month ($ 29.99 per year) for 200GB, $ 9.99 per month ($ 99.99 per year) for 2TB, $ 99.99 per month for 10TB, and $ 199.99 per month for 20TB and $ 299.99 for 30TB of storage.

Key Features of Google One Membership

Google One is a paid membership plan that offers users greater storage benefits, covering Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. It also offers the ability to automatically back up your phone for easy phone switching and helps to easily communicate with experts for better complaint resolution. It also offers access to Google Store rewards and Google Play credits. Users can share their Google One plan with up to five family members and get extended free trials on services like YouTube Premium.

Unlimited Google Photos storage until 2021

Recently, Google announced that it is ending the free unlimited storage benefit on Google Photos and will start charging for storage space where your photos and videos exceed the 15GB quota. The new change will take effect on June 1, 2021. This move aims to help convince more people to get a paid subscription to Google One.

The company mentions that photos or videos you have uploaded in ‘high quality’ (not original quality) before June 1 will not count towards the 15GB limit. Therefore, the change will be effective for uploads made after June 1. Additionally, older Pixel phone users will be exempt from the latest change and will still be able to upload their ‘high quality’ photos and videos from their devices even after June 1. But unlike before, they will also not be able to access unlimited storage for their content in its original file size. Future Pixel phones have been confirmed not to offer an unlimited storage benefit.

Google One will offer paid editing tools in Google Photos

Google is also reportedly adding various paid editing tools in Photos for paid Google One subscribers exclusively. For example, you are offering a paid pop-up color feature to Google One members, where they can apply the filter on any photo, even without depth information. Currently, the feature is available for free only for photos with depth information.

VPN service for Google One premium subscribers

Last month, Google also introduced a VPN service for specific Google One subscribers. The Google One VPN is only available on plans 2TB and above. A virtual private network (VPN) is designed for safe use of the Internet and is used by people to access prohibited sites. With its VPN app, Google adds strong encryption to a phone’s online traffic, no matter what app or browser the user is using. The service was initially launched for Android users in the US, but plans to expand to more countries and to iOS, Windows, and macOS in the coming months.

Is Android One holding back Nokia smartphones in India? We talked about this on Orbital, our weekly tech podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.