For Google Photos some innovations are pending in the coming year. The most important one is probably that saving images should no longer be free of charge. Until now, it has been possible to store images and videos permanently in the cloud with the photo platform Google Photos. Here, however, the user had to make compromises in terms of quality if he wanted to have unlimited storage space.
Storage will be credited in the future
Google’s changes are expected to take effect from June 01, 2021. From that date on, all new videos and photos uploaded by users will be credited to the free storage. The memory is 15 GB and is used by Google Mail, Google Photos and Drive. With this, the company wants to meet the increasing demand for storage space. However, images and videos uploaded before June 1, 2021, will not count towards the storage limit. So the previously saved videos and images will remain free of charge and are not affected by the limitation. There is an exception here again. All pictures and videos that were uploaded in high quality should be excluded from the change. Accordingly, these are the images that are compressed and not in original quality. If users wanted to have the better quality of the original picture they had to purchase additional storage space. But for most people a compressed image is sufficient. To check the backup quality, users can go to Backup & Synchronization via the setting.
Free tool for checking
Simultaneously with the changes, users can then use a new free tool in the photo app to manage their saved pictures and videos. With the tool, users can check and manage all their pictures and videos and decide whether they want to delete or keep them. Account space can be easily checked using the three-bar menu in the top left-hand corner of the app and the Account Space tab at the bottom. Up to now, expanding the storage space from 15 GB to 100 GB costs 1.99 Euro per month or 19.99 Euro per year. It is not yet known whether this will lead to an increase in prices.
