Google reveals Google Photos with free, unlimited photo and video storage [u]

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited June 2015
During the keynote presentation at its annual developers conference on Thursday, Google officially announced Google Photos, a new photo storage and backup service that offers unlimited storage for photos and videos.




In the free tier, Google Photos will allow images up to 16 megapixels to be stored at full resolution. Photos taken in higher resolutions will be compressed, but Google says the image quality will not be affected.

Videos, meanwhile, can be stored for free up to 1080p, while higher-resolution clips will be downsampled. In both cases, users with paid Google Drive accounts can choose to store their photos and videos in full, original resolution.

New search features will automatically analyze and tag uploaded photos or videos, and the same editing tools available with Google+ will be available for Google Photos users.

At press time, the Google Photos app had not yet appeared on the App Store, but it is slated to debut today. A Mac desktop client is planned for the future.

Update: Google Photos is now available to download from the iOS App Store.
«134567

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 128
    msanttimsantti Posts: 1,377member
    Looking pretty craptacular here Apple!

    I know the purse string are pretty tight at Apple nowadays but how about maybe another 1 GB for free.

    Sheesh.
  • Reply 2 of 128
    apple v. samsungapple v. samsung Posts: 406member
    msantti wrote: »
    Looking pretty craptacular here Apple!


    I know the purse string are pretty tight at Apple nowadays but how about maybe another 1 GB for free.

    Sheesh.

    Don't worry the iOS version of the app will be better then the android counterpart.
  • Reply 3 of 128
    xian zhu xuandexian zhu xuande Posts: 801member
    msantti wrote: »
    Looking pretty craptacular here Apple!

    I know the purse string are pretty tight at Apple nowadays but how about maybe another 1 GB for free.

    Sheesh.
    Yep... Apple needs to step up their game in Cloud storage and services.
  • Reply 4 of 128
    teco221teco221 Posts: 12member
    I won't use it. After Google analyzed the photo and video, Google would know who, where and what you did. No thanks.
  • Reply 5 of 128
    pistispistis Posts: 247member
    xian zhu xuande wrote: »
    Yep... Apple needs to step up their game in Cloud storage and services.

    You don't actually believe any is really free at Google do you

    Sheesh

    I'd rather sell my soul to the devil
  • Reply 6 of 128
    aaronsullivanaaronsullivan Posts: 140member
    This is good. Pressure on Apple in this space is good. Apple needs to flip the switch on photos and make it work somehow because the whole system seems set up for exactly what Google is now offering. I'm just not sure how Apple can make it work financially. It _is_ a different model. Google wants you sucked into their space so they can confront you with constant ads. Apple wants you to love their hardware. Should be an interesting WWDC keynote after this announcement.
  • Reply 7 of 128
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    pistis wrote: »
    You don't actually believe any is really free at Google do you

    Sheesh

    I'd rather sell my soul to the devil
    The devil serves ads?? :D
  • Reply 8 of 128
    cpsrocpsro Posts: 3,198member

    With Google, nothing is free.

     

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    Photos taken in [>16 megapixel] resolutions will be compressed, but Google says the image quality will not be affected.

    Yeah, sure. This gives me even more trust in Google.

     

    Edit: or has Hooli entered into talks with Pied Piper again?

  • Reply 9 of 128
    konqerrorkonqerror Posts: 685member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by aaronsullivan View Post



    I'm just not sure how Apple can make it work financially.

     

    Different backend model too. Apple buys storage and bandwidth from Amazon and Microsoft, obviously paying them a profit. Google (and Facebook) develops their own dirt-cheap servers to let them do this.

  • Reply 10 of 128
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    gatorguy wrote: »
    The devil serves ads?? :D

    yes, for ice water.
  • Reply 11 of 128
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    sog35 wrote: »
    its very easy to have near lossless photo compression.

    If so why would they even make an uncompressed format?
  • Reply 12 of 128
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 2,000member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by konqerror View Post

     

     

    Different backend model too. Apple buys storage and bandwidth from Amazon and Microsoft, obviously paying them a profit. Google (and Facebook) develops their own dirt-cheap servers to let them do this.




    Are you sure that is really true now?  What are all these data centers that have been built / being built doing then?

  • Reply 13 of 128
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    I would also like to participate in the anti-Apple rhetoric. [I]"Cmon Apple, be more like Google!"[/I] Yeah! That was fun!
  • Reply 14 of 128
    sirlance99sirlance99 Posts: 1,293member
    teco221 wrote: »
    I won't use it. After Google analyzed the photo and video, Google would know who, where and what you did. No thanks.

    Lies. That's not what happens. Please provide proof.
  • Reply 15 of 128
    pistispistis Posts: 247member
    msantti wrote: »
    Looking pretty craptacular here Apple!

    I know the purse string are pretty tight at Apple nowadays but how about maybe another 1 GB for free.

    Sheesh.

    gatorguy wrote: »
    The devil serves ads?? :D

    No it does not serves ads if you have ghostery and ad aware Adblock etc. installed
  • Reply 16 of 128
    slickdealerslickdealer Posts: 70member

    Apple isn't going to scan the metadata of your images and target ads based on that metadata.  

     

    Most people don't realize how much data is stored within an image.  

     

    This is why Google can do this for free.  

  • Reply 17 of 128
    alcstarheelalcstarheel Posts: 554member
    I'm glad this puts pressure on AAPL. Obviously this isn't free from Goodle but the discussion about it should get people talking about how iCloud currently functions and what is provided. More is better especially with how much people take pictures now.
  • Reply 18 of 128
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Actually Apple's entire cloud storage is quite expensive when compared to the others. I pay less for 1TB from Google Drive and 1TB from Microsofts OneDrive, 2TB in total than what Apple charges for 1TB. That's two separate services, combined, costs less than Apple. Apples iCloud is also the slowest of the three, by a very large margin, now this has a lot to do with the location of Googles and Microsofts servers related to my position but it's a little disconcerting when you have to pay twice as much for a service with mediocre performance. Unfortunately since I can't select my own default apps in iOS and the share list is populated with apps that are been hard coded in by it's developers, instead of populating an apps share list with any app that's installed and supported, OneDrive and Google Drive is a rare commodity on an iOS device, meaning you hardly ever see it listed. It's always either iCloud, DropBox or both, at least DropBox is still 80 bucks cheaper a year for 1TB.

    Besides the apparently awful way that iOS populates the list of apps it's apps share function can share too, Apple needs to rethink it's iCloud pricing model.
  • Reply 19 of 128
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,213member
    slickdealer wrote: »
    Apple isn't going to scan the metadata of your images and target ads based on that metadata.  

    Most people don't realize how much data is stored within an image.  

    This is why Google can do this for free.  
    Google is going to scan the metadata and send you ads based on it? While that may be what happens is that actually mentioned anywhere official or a guess?

    EDIT: It just occurred to me that reading metadata might be helpful in searching my own photo catalogs. For instance I might want to find all the images from my Maine vacations. I wonder if Google would be able to do a search of the content based on location?
  • Reply 20 of 128
    schlackschlack Posts: 720member
    will it ever integrate with Photos?
Sign In or Register to comment.