Give us more base Google One storage already

Google One storage is the default cloud storage service on Android telephones globally, and it makes for a fairly seamless backup expertise. The service additionally means quick-fire entry to all of your information throughout a great deal of gadgets — comfort at its most interesting.

There’s one grievance I’ve about Google One, although. And that’s the truth that Google hasn’t upgraded the bottom storage in years.

Google Drive was initially launched again in 2012, duking it out with iCloud, Dropbox, SkyDrive, and a number of other different storage providers. The corporate’s most cost-effective paid storage plan gave you 25GB of storage for $2.49 a month. In the meantime, 100GB of storage would set you again $4.99 a month at launch.

Google rejigged its pricing in 2014, providing 100GB of base storage for simply $1.99 a month. To Google’s credit score, this was a stable deal on the time. In contrast, Dropbox’s 100GB plan was priced at $9.99 a month. Apple’s iCloud didn’t have a 100GB plan however charged a fairly respectable $2.99 a month for its 200GB tier. Google would go on to supply a 200GB tier for a similar worth in 2018.

Quick-forward to 2023, and the most affordable Google One storage plan continues to be $1.99 a month for 100GB. We’re clearly approach overdue for an improve.

Merely put, 100GB isn’t plenty of storage in any respect in the present day. Maybe the largest purpose for that is that Google Photographs storage is now not free.

Google used to supply limitless high-quality photograph and video backups, and a great deal of individuals took benefit of this. These backups didn’t rely towards your Google cloud storage plan, permitting you to make use of your free permitting or paid storage plan for different recordsdata like paperwork, RAW recordsdata, video games, and extra.

Google ditched limitless free photograph/video backups in 2021, however loads of individuals nonetheless have computerized backups enabled. I’m one among them, which has resulted in my cloud storage being consumed at an exponential price.

This isn’t helped by the truth that photographs and video recordsdata are larger than ever, because of options like 8K video, HDR video, and super-high-resolution snaps. Now we have seen new codecs like HEIF photographs and HEVC movies, permitting cellphone makers to supply smaller file sizes or greater high quality media on the identical file measurement. Nevertheless, the general pattern continues to be in direction of bigger file sizes, particularly with telephones just like the Galaxy S23 Extremely able to churning out 200MP photographs with a file measurement in extra of 30MB.

The Pixel 8‘s 50MP JPEG photos account for roughly 3 times extra storage than a 12.5MP picture (albeit 9MB versus ~3MB). This pattern can be obvious for the iPhone 15 sequence as the brand new telephones shoot at 24MP by default, reportedly leading to an admittedly modest ~1MB file enhance. However these file sizes nonetheless add up over time. Likewise, the Pixel 8 Professional’s Video Increase/Night time Sight Video characteristic requires cloud storage and processing fairly than on-device processing, consuming up but more room.

You can argue that cloud storage is much less vital as bodily storage swimming pools have grown. It’s frequent to search out flagship smartphones with 1TB of storage, whereas even low-cost telephones can be found with 256GB of storage in 2023. It’s a far cry from the primary 12 months of Google Drive when high-end telephones provided 16GB to 64GB of storage. Nonetheless, there’s no denying that cloud storage is extra vital than ever for storing recordsdata throughout a number of gadgets and sharing recollections with household and mates. Google’s inexpensive choice merely isn’t protecting tempo.

Storage tends to get cheaper over time, so I discover it exhausting to imagine that cloud storage prices haven’t decreased total in comparison with the early 2010s. Both 100GB must be cheaper, or we should always have extra of it for a similar worth. Nevertheless, Google Cloud admittedly introduced some hefty worth will increase in 2022, so maybe administering this storage is protecting costs up.

It have to be stated that Google isn’t the one cloud participant to carry comparatively regular on base storage plans. Apple’s iCloud nonetheless retains the identical 50GB ($0.99 a month) and 200GB ($2.99 a month) tiers in any case this time. Microsoft OneDrive nonetheless matches Google by charging $1.99 a month for 100GB of storage, leaping straight to 1TB for a $6.99 month-to-month payment.

Time for Google to alter with the occasions

Even when cloud storage prices haven’t fallen considerably prior to now decade to allow extra base Google One storage, there are nonetheless different methods Google might present extra bang on your buck. For one, Google might supply a correct Apple One rival, bundling its numerous providers (together with a bigger cloud storage plan) into one cost-effective package deal.

The corporate might additionally supply extra helpful family-sharing performance (even at a slight premium). This manner, every member will get 100GB of storage fairly than every member of the family grabbing a slice of your 100GB storage plan. Google might even theoretically convert our backed-up photographs and movies to extra environment friendly HEIF and HEVC codecs, liberating up area within the course of.

Both approach, it’s been roughly a decade since Google provided 100GB of base cloud storage for $1.99 a month. Our cloud storage necessities have solely skyrocketed since then, so it’s excessive time the corporate up to date the bottom Google One storage to mirror this new actuality.