{"id":110673,"date":"2020-11-12T01:49:03","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T22:49:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/google-photos-is-ending-unlimited-storage-and-people-are-not-happy\/"},"modified":"2020-11-12T01:49:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T22:49:03","slug":"google-photos-is-ending-unlimited-storage-and-people-are-not-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/google-photos-is-ending-unlimited-storage-and-people-are-not-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"#Google Photos is ending unlimited storage and people are not happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Google Photos is ending unlimited storage and people are not happ<\/a>y<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n
\"Another<\/source><\/source><\/picture>
\nAnother previously free tech product is about to start costing.
\n<\/figcaption>
\nImage: Nicolas Economou\/NurPhoto via Getty Images\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s the end of an era, folks. The era of free cloud photo storage, that is.<\/p>\n

Google announced Wednesday<\/a> that Google Photos would no longer allow unlimited high-quality photo and video storage for its previous price of free-99 (h\/t The Verge<\/a>). Beginning June 1, 2021, any new hi-res photos stored in Google Photos will count against the service’s limit of 15GB of free data. Once you eclipse that amount, it’s time to pay up.<\/p>\n

The move appears to be part of a larger effort by Google<\/a> to tamp down on \u2014 or at least make money on \u2014 the massive amount of data it stores. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides will begin counting toward data limits, and Google will also start automatically deleting data from inactive accounts.<\/p>\n

The Google Photos policy is not all bad. It won’t go into effect until next June, and all of the media<\/a> you’ve previously uploaded won’t count against the 15GB limit \u2014 only new uploads. Google also points out that it has features to help you manage storage (like identifying blurry photos or large video files you might want to delete), and has a tool<\/a> to estimate your data needs. As for the price of storage, users can get 100GB of storage for $1.99\/month. That cap also includes data from Gmail and Google Drive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These palliatives, however, did not stem the tide of mass-bemoaning that occurs whenever a tech company decides it’s time to pay for something that was previously free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Classic bait and switch by Google Photos:<\/p>\n

Get people to upload their entire photo archives with the promise of free storage.<\/p>\n

Then start charging.https:\/\/t.co\/4ESsQojabJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Geoffrey A. Fowler (@geoffreyfowler) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

My whole life is in Google Photos and now I do not know how much more storage I need to buy to last…the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00af_(\u30c4)_\/\u00af (@PranavDixit) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

I’ve been defending Google against government anti-trust charges for years. But now it’s clear that I was wrong. Google is an abusive monopoly that lies to and cheats its users. https:\/\/t.co\/pigVZAusak<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Elgan (@MikeElgan) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In a hand-wringing Twitter thread, David Lieb, the product head of Google Photos, announced the change, and tried to show all the ways Google was easing the blow. That didn’t stop his replies from filling up with frustrated customers.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Ah, yes. This is as painless as the worst pain a human can feel. Where else am I supposed to keep my photos???<\/p>\n

\u2014 theIbaII ?\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f (@TheLBall) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

How is this the *right* decision?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Samuel (@Samuelitooooo55) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some people see where Google is coming from. For the privacy-minded, it’s better to ask users to simply pay for a service than monetize their data with ads and more.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Google Photos’ ‘compressed’ option will soon count towards your storage limit – it’s a really great service, so it’s a nice change of pace to see Google commit to it by monetizing directly, rather than via advertising. https:\/\/t.co\/cOO8wJcKV6<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Owen Williams \u26a1?? (@ow) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Google Photos has been one of my favorite software tools for many years. (Since it was part of Plus, even.) <\/p>\n

I completely understand the teeth-gnashing, but I’d much rather pay for it than have the company monetize it in ~other ways~<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mat Honan (@mat) November 11, 2020<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Of course, Google does monetize data.<\/p>\n

Google says it does not use Google Photos images for targeted ads. Nor does it use them to train its algorithms \u2014 it uses photos uploaded to Image Search for that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, as The Ringer points out<\/a>, the way the service works now “won\u2019t be the same way it functions in the future, and ideas that sound invasive today could be sold as innovative tomorrow.” Case in point: In 2017, Google told the Ringer it doesn’t use Google Photos uploads to train its AI. Today, in the most recent version of the app, it’s asking Photos users to help train its image recognition algorithms<\/a> by voluntarily labeling their pictures.\u00a0
\n