Uff. Google photos free storage for limited-res photos is going away.

Why do we keep trusting Google with any service promises? This is about the 15th thing they have cancelled on me.

I was already moving more and more off Google, but may need to make it complete, soon.

@toddgrotenhuis they got enough to train their detection algorithms and are now going to charge

@toddgrotenhuis Uff indeed! Maybe I’ll say bye-bye to G-universe.

@toddgrotenhuis It’s not the cost for me, I don’t mind paying. It’s all the competition and alternatives they squashed along the way.

@mcg agreed. Don’t mind paying for a service. It’s more about the lock-in and abandonment and what it does to the ecosystem.

@toddgrotenhuis We should know better than to trust Google with anything, and yet here we are again. If Google just killed Gmail one day I wouldn't be suprised.

@toddgrotenhuis I'm patting myself on the back and saying "Good boy". I started to move stuff off Google many years ago - I don't exactly remember why but there was some reason. So yes, I still use some Google services but in a VERY limited sense and if they abandoned all services today it wouldn't really make a difference in my day to day life.

@toddgrotenhuis I started the process, now speeding it up. Bye Google (also Amazon). Dumped Dropbox years ago

@ohBananaJoe Good question. I've paid for ICloud for a few years but had Google as an extra backup. I know Amazon has some sort of option and you could use Dropbox as well. I don't think there are too many other dedicated photo storage solutions that work so well for smartphone photos. Certainly there are lots of solutions aimed at DSLR shooters.

@ChrisJWilson They wouldn’t?! I’ve wanted to move from Gmail but it seems like too big a thing to do!

@ohBananaJoe It all depends on what you want to do but I my suggestion would be one (or several) of these: Flickr, Smugmug, a Synology Disk Station, Amazon, running a server with something like OwnCloud. If you want to have the ability to make a nice web site with albums and share with friends/family then I would say Smugmug. If you want to keep the photos to yourself and/or share with other photographers then Flickr. Yes, you can share to friends/family with Flickr but Smugmug looks better and offer a better experience for those who are less "nerdy". If you already have a Synology then it's an alternative - somewhere between Flickr and Smugmug ... but you should probably set it up to do offsite backup just in case. I don't know anything about Amazon Prime or whatever it's called but personally I wouldn't trust them. OwnCloud etc if you want to tinker with it.

Personally I use Smugmug, Flickr and a Synology (well, I need to have a hobby 😜), if I were to select only one and wanted to share with people I know then Smugmug. If I just wanted a social space with other photographers then Flickr. Full control then Synology.

@toddgrotenhuis @ChrisJWilson @mcg @odd

@ChrisJWilson Smartphone backup, both Flickr, Smugmug and Synology offers pretty good alternatives.

@Omrrc you're probably right. I'm probably being over dramatic and I guess it's more concievable that they would start charging instead as a way to get more service revnue. In fact, they kind of do with their storage plan so killing it is probably unlikely, but who knows.

@jemostrom I had been considering going all in on Apple Photos but I guess this might make that official. Most of these options are an ok place to backup/organize/share but other than Amazon, don’t have any sort of ML searching.

@jemostrom I totally get workflow tool choices. But doesn’t Photos allow you to create albums and organize this way?

@toddgrotenhuis If you’re not paying, you’re the product. A bitter truth for those with limited walking-around money.

@ohBananaJoe I’ll start backing up to Dropbox at least. Prime members also get storage, but I don’t trust Amazon, either. Going to look into the iCloud, Smugmug, and Flickr capabilities.

My main use cases are backup and sharing with family.

@mcg Yes, it sure does. Before reading any further please know that I'm a person that like to organize things the way I like and I do not trust programs to do this for me ... so iCloud Photos is a perfect fit for a lot of people but not for me.

I started to write an answer but it got so long that I deleted it. So shortly: yes there are albums but the support for managing the photos with the albums are poor, especially on iOS.

@mcg I didn't intend to post that without finish writing the answer!

I've tried many times to use Photos to manage a part of my photos, but very soon I've given up in despair since I have huge difficulties in separating finished photos from others.

I think that Photos tries to do too many things: being an archive of photos, a scratchpad where to store current work, a place to store temporary photos (like from where the car was parked, a phone number, etc), a place where to exchange image info between apps, etc.

In my mind everything gets too cluttered. But this is just me.

@toddgrotenhuis Maps is basically the only service that keeps me tethered to Google (it's really good), and you've gotten me thinking again about cutting the cord completely. Bing Maps? I know it's still a manifestation of The Man, but still. I know about OpenStreetMap, but it doesn't (yet?) come close in functionality, sad to say.