After offering unlimited free photo backups for years, Google Photos has now ended its free unlimited storage from June 1. From now on, any photo users upload -- including compressed "storage saver" pics -- count toward their Google Drive storage limit unless it comes from a Pixel phone, Engadget reported.
If users need more space, they will have to pay for Google One plans that start at $2 per month for 100GB of Drive space and scale to 2TB for $10 per month. Any photos they have uploaded before June 1 won't count toward the cap.
Google has also made it easier to delete unwanted photos through a tool that finds blurry snapshots, screenshots and other items users can usually remove, the report said. The company explained the move last November as a necessary step to "keep pace" with the demand for storage, it added. Those users still looking for a free service can use the no-cost tiers for services like Dropbox or Flickr if you have a modest collection.
Recently, Google rolled out a new feature that will help Gmail users transfer emailed photos from their accounts directly to Google Photos. The new 'Save to Photos' button, currently available only for images in JPEG format, will arrive for personal Gmail users, Google Workspace, G Suite Basic and G Suite Business customers in the next couple of weeks. "You'll see it next to the existing "Add to Drive" button on the attachment and while previewing the image attachment. Currently, this is only available for JPEG images," Google said in an update.
According to the company, the new feature frees users from having to download photo attachments from Gmail messages in order to then manually back them up to Google Photos. This feature will be ON by default. For an eligible photo, you can choose the 'Save to Photos' button which is alongside a similar option to ‘Add to Drive'.