Google Photos 'free' unlimited storage service ends on June 1

Last November, Google announced that the company will revoke the unlimited high-quality storage policy of Google Photos and go into effect on June 1, 2021. That's tomorrow.

It is believed that more than 4 trillion images are stored in Google Photos, and 28 billion new photos and videos are being uploaded every week.

The speed and vast volume of photos (& videos) being uploaded to Google Photos, is getting out of hand for the company to manage and increase the storage space in the backend.

So, starting Tuesday (June 1), any new video and image uploaded to Google Photos will count towards the free 15GB limit. But, those owning Pixel 5 or older Pixel phones need not worry about anything for now.

"If you have a Pixel 1-5, photos uploaded from that device won’t be impacted. Photos and videos uploaded in High quality from that device will continue to be exempt from this change, even after June 1, 2021," the company said.

However, people with other branded devices have to micro-manage while uploading new photos and videos to the Google Photos app. Once the storage crosses the 15GB limit, customers will have to either subscribe to the paid Google One service (starts at Rs 130/month or Rs 1,300/year) or delete the old content to accommodate new photos and videos.

Last week, Google introduced a new tool that identifies blurry photos, useless screenshots, and large videos, so users can delete them and make space for new quality images.

Also, the company has introduced to feature that can estimate how many years (or months/days) are left before the 15GB storage gets filled. It can understand the user's behaviour in terms of how frequently he/she back up photos, videos, and other content to their Google Account.

Read more | Here's how to estimate storage space available

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