Important policy changes for Google Account storage"- If you have a Gmail account then there are chances that you may be seeing more of such emails with this subject in your inbox lately. If you are wondering why these emails are bombarding your inbox then you should know that Google is making some important policy changes to accounts and it could affect your Gmail, Drive, Sheets and other Google apps.
So, what exactly is this policy change? Google is basically changing the way you use its online cloud storage system. The company will very soon stop offering free storage for photos and videos for its Google Photos service. This change will come into effect from June 1, 2021.
Breaking it down into simpler words, every photos and videos that you upload from June 1, 2021 will count toward the free 15 GB of storage that comes with every Google Account or the additional storage that one purchases as a Google One member. However, any high-quality photos or videos that are backed up before June 1, 2021 will be considered free and remain unaffected by the new policy change. This is because Google already counts the high-quality photos and videos towards the free 15GB storage.
"If you back up your photos and videos in Original quality, these changes do not affect you. As always, your Original quality photos and videos will continue to count toward your 15 GB of free storage across your Google Account," Google informs in its blogpost.
Owners of Pixel 5 or earlier will also be exempted from this alteration. The current backup quality options and benefits for them remain unchanged. The high-quality uploads from these devices will continue to receive free unlimited storage even after June 1, 2021
So, what action should you take now? Nothing as of now as there's still some time for the change to come into play. To backup your photos and videos in Photos, log in to your Google account and at the top right, tap your account profile photo or initial. Next select Photos settings and tap on or off under the "Back up & sync".
After June 1, 2021 also, you will be able to use your 15GB free storage and Google will inform you via mail once the storage starts nearing the limit.
Google currently offers 15GB of free space that covers Gmail, Drive and Photos. The company will add a new tool starting June 1, 2021 that will help you easily manage your backup photos and videos. This tool will basically act like a filter helping you to remove the data that you do not wish to keep like blurry or bad photos or videos.
News Source: https://www.indiatoday.in