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For over five years, Google Photo has been one of the safest options to recommend as a photo management app. It’s feature-rich, available on multiple devices, fast and easy to use, and most importantly, unlimited free photos when the resolution is “high quality” (the polite name for “compression”). It was possible to save.
Terms of service will be changed. It was announced on November 11 (US time) that Google Photo could increase the load for users starting in June 2021. If your data storage exceeds 15 GB, you will be charged.
It is important to clarify the changes here. First of all, all Google accounts get 15GB of free storage, usually uploaded to Google Photos in “Gmail” messages and attachments, files stored in “Google Drive” and in their original size. It is consumed by photographic data. There is no change in this regard.
However, at this time, there is an option to resize the photo up to 16 megapixels when uploading the photo, and these photos and videos up to 1080p resolution do not count towards the 15GB limit. After June 1, 2021, any newly uploaded photos will be counted in storage capacity.
Decide on “changes commensurate with value”
Fortunately, existing “high-quality” photos and videos, as well as “high-quality” photos uploaded through May next year, are not subject to the 15GB limit. “Of course, usage varies from person to person, but I think that 80% of users will not reach the limit for almost three years,” explains Simlit Ben Yayle, vice president of photography at Google. “High quality” photos uploaded from the Pixel smartphone series will continue to be exempt from restrictions).
“Many users trust and use Google Photo as a place to store their memories. We believe that it is important to be able to provide long-term service, not just a great product,” says Google Photo product. Reed’s David Reeve posted on Twitter. “To make this possible both in the long term and in the present, the price of the services (content storage) is proportional to the key value that users enjoy (the convenience of being accessible from anywhere and keeping track of their lives I have decided to do it
After all, it is better to pay and keep the service than to discontinue it entirely.
As all the users of the “Carousel” photo management service that was once provided by Dropbox say, it is difficult to recover from the loss of the carrier that provides cloud storage. And Google has not hesitated to discontinue its popular service offering (remember the long-running RSS reader “Google Reader”). And according to Google’s Reeve, it seems better to charge users directly than to monetize through advertising (which has not been considered until now).
What are the alternative options?
Still, for many users who have come to rely solely on Google Photos as a place to store their memories, this is a welcome change. If the limit is exceeded, the storage expansion plan will start at $ 20 per year for 100GB (¥ 2,500 / month in Japan, ¥ 250 / month).
Google has introduced a tool that calculates how long storage will fit within limits based on current state of charge. Also next year, it will be easier to find things that should be removed, such as blurry photos, dark photos, and long videos, from the uploaded data.
It’s certainly better to pay for Google Photo services than to discontinue them entirely. But the main reason so many people use this service in the first place is that the free and unlimited prices have kept small competitors out. Google may have lost money on Google Photos so far, but it has managed to retain users.
Apple’s iCloud storage, on the other hand, has the same monthly fee as Google, which could be an attractive alternative for iPhone users. However, this creates the inconvenience of having to move years of image and video files to a new platform.
Amazon Photos offers unlimited full-resolution photo storage and 5GB of video storage, which is only available to Amazon Prime members. Other users will have a total capacity of 5GB for photos and videos, and if they want to increase it, they will sign up for Amazon Prime or request a 1 terabyte plan (13,800 yen per year in Japan). Also, this plan is much bigger than Google and Apple.
Free doesn’t last forever
Free stuff doesn’t last forever. It can be disappointing that Google starts charging for one of people’s most popular and absorbing features (Google Photos uploads 28 billion photos and videos every week). It is not surprising. But that’s certainly preferable to alternatives like stopping Google Photos services and displaying ads.
On the other hand, if conditions that are too convenient for consumers, such as cloud storage, ride-sharing rates, and movies that can be enjoyed by subscription, continue, the companies that provide them eliminate the competition or go bankrupt. in the middle. Until it’s over. It was an event that made me realize that again.
* Click here to view “WIRED” Google-related articles.
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