This cover was made using Canva and Bitmoji, the screenshots in this post were taken directly from my Redmi Note 13 Pro+.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the 15GB of storage that came for free in my Google account was starting to run out, and therefore, I had to make a decision: either find a way to free up some space, or alternatively pay for the "premium" Google One plan, which has several modalities at different prices, each with different benefits.
Although my Gmail account has been with me for at least 13 years, it was not until I started using Google Photos intensively in 2015 that I started to use up its free storage space. In fact, I remember that previously the photos we saved did not even take up space if we backed them up in compressed form, and, as the loss of quality was minimal, I kept my backups like that for a long time.
Nowadays things are not so simple, files that used to take up less than 200kbs can now weigh up to 10-15mb, therefore, as time goes by these 15GB are increasingly insufficient.
The point is that for only $1.99 per month the basic Google One plan seemed to be a better option, especially if we take into account that these extra 100GB could be shared with up to 5 members of our family (A benefit that my brother would take advantage of as well).
However, far from reflecting on this new tradition of paying for services that were previously free on the Internet, I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly review the Google services that I usually use most regularly, recognizing that the platform has evolved and is far from being the simple search engine that it used to be, something that at least I personally consider positive for everyone.
For me, the key to Google's success lies not only in the quality of each of its services individually, but in the way in which they can be organically integrated with any of our devices: tablets, TVs, SmartPhones and any type of smart device.
In the case of Apple, for example, everything works more hermetically, and it is practically impossible to transfer a photo backup in iCloud to an Android without using third-party applications.
And, although it is tedious that the storage (both the free 15GB and those that we buy extra) is shared between all the services (Remember that email, drive, photos, WhatsApp backups, etc., all use the same space), in the end this ends up being more intuitive for us as users.
For this reason, I have long preferred Google's alternatives regardless of the brand and operating system of the Smartphone I am using (Apple, Samsung or Xiaomi), since I know that I will be able to see my Google Keep notes anywhere, or my Google Photos, or my calendar, or basically anything.
Does this mean that their services are the best? Not necessarily, but it does speak to the importance of convenience when it comes to using any platform or app on the Internet above all else.
Twitter/Instagram/Letterbox: Alxxssss
Google and its tools do make life easier, and they are quite easy to use, I think that's why many people choose it. I find your publication interesting, I did not know that I could share storage, that is very useful, thanks for sharing.
The shared storage is a great option! Specially if you feel that 100GB is too much just for you
Thanks for the comment!
If you can get Amazon Prime you get unlimited photo storage, that's what I've been using. Plus Prime Video and the rest!
I didn't knew that! Maybe I'll give it a try
Yeah it's worth it. Probably the best deal for cloud storage you can get since they accept RAW files and the photo storage is unlimited. Videos are different, you get 5gb of that but I paid a dollar for 100gb on the video side. I don't really need the video side as much as video though.
I spent a lot of time looking into cloud storage deals for my photography since my laptop was running out of space, as were my SD cards. The main thing for me was zero compression on the files and a good pricing per TB. Since Amazon's unlimited as well, it won over the rest.
The problem is, at least last time I checked, that Google doesn't make it east to separate videos from photos. If you take a lot of video, almost any amount of space will get eaten up pretty fast.