Google Photos: No More Free Unlimited Storage, How to Buy Google One Subscription?
Google Photos has changed its free storage algorithm starting from June 1st. Google accounts that include Photos, Drive, and Gmail have ended its unlimited free photos and videos storage to 15 GB. Once the storage reaches 15 GB, Google has stopped providing unlimited Google Photos backup in High Quality in order to make people subscribe to Google One.
Earlier, all the photos and videos were backed in Original Quality but now the photos whether it’s in High Quality or Original Quality will consume the free 15 GB storage space on Google Photos. All the photos that are backed up in High Quality are actually compressed that are of low quality as compared to the photos that are in Original Quality. For those unaware, High-Quality Photos occupy less space than photos of Original Quality.
What is Google One?
Google One is a paid service that is simply called Google Drive Storage that offers more storage to your Google account. When you consume 15 GB of free storage, Google will ask you to subscribe to Google One. Google One offers various benefits including access to Google customer care- if you face any problem, extra storage, the option to share these storage plans with up to 6 members, and some exclusive offers of Google Play.
Google One plan gives an additional benefit and extra perks to its paid members. You can subscribe to Google One once you reach the storage limit. You will be able to expand your storage limit to 100 GB, 200 GB, or TB, depending on the package you choose. Once you buy a Google One subscription, Google Photos will again become ‘free and unlimited’.
Google One Plans come in three levels:
100 GB storage space costs Rs.130 per month.
200 GB storage space costs Rs.210 per month.
2 TB storage space costs Rs.650 per month.
All the benefits in the plans are similar except for the 2 TB plan where you will get a free VPN service for your Android phone. If you choose to buy a yearly plan, you can save some money and Google will also not send you repeated emails every month to extend your subscription. Google will not allow you to access your photos and videos beyond the free 15 GB storage. Your account may become inactive if you don’t clear the storage space or buy an additional subscription pack.
There are also other plans that offer the storage of 10 TB, 20 TB, or 30 TB, but for that, you first need to be a member of Google One.
How to buy a Google One subscription?
However, it is not mandatory to buy a Google One storage subscription. There are other service providers such as Apple iCloud, Amazon Photos, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Photos, and others. There is also another option where you can buy a portable SSD with cloud storage to save photos and videos.