Google Photos: Backup & Edit 4+

I have a family member that has been using Samsung ever since 2015 with google photos stored on his phone and he has millions of photos that just now can’t be stored anywhere as he’s ran out of storage. I completely understand myself, including him that, it’s ONLY )1.29 or something a month, but it’s just no good that people like him need to be put in a tough situation where you can’t store your photos anywhere anymore, even Samsung iCloud is now going to be a ‘must have’ payed sumbscription to store photos on Samsung bc Samsun will delete photos by 30th of September permanently if not stored onto the cloud, which is ridicules for Samsung to even do. And I feel like google photos and other photos and files storing apps should think about, how other people have stored memories somewhere that soon need to be payed for, these are m’empestiez we’re talking about! It’s no good.
So I finally hope that in the future that google photos will make a real change and increase the default storage to at least 36GB L. Phones nowadays are 1TB and storing photos on 15GB is just crazy. There’s a huge difference and this doesn’t just apply for google photos, but also default gallery’s and photos apps on iPhones and Samsungs that should provide a larger iCloud storage plane.

I’ve been using Google Photos for a few years now, mainly as my primary backup of my photographs taken using my phone. It allows me to keep my phone space free while being able to formulate albums, mark favourites and easily share memories to other apps. I am an avid photographer of my children (my memory isn’t as good as it was, thanks baby brain) and the Recent Highlights/highlights of this week from previous years has enabled me to easily revisit cherished moments. Now if I had written this review last week, it would have been 5 stars, but the announcement that there will now be a charge has put a dampener on whether I continue to use this app or find another free way of storing my photographs. I’m trying to find a way of writing this without sounding petty (and failing) but it’s disappointing to see this currently free service now be charged for additional storage, of which shall be within 7 months if the calculated projected timescale for me is correct. The fact that it was free for unlimited storage at a marginally lower quality (which was still amazing quality) was a huge pull for me to use this service. I don’t have a lot of spare time to sit and manually back up and organise my photos so this app has really helped me to feel organised and up to date when I’ve been able to have a spare few minutes. I am really reluctant to have my photos in different places, but if the charges come through then that may have to be the case.

29th August 2021 - since the latest update the app doesn't work on my iPad, just freezes constantly. Editing on a phone is a pain. Hope it gets fixed soon. 2nd September - you may have fixed some user issues but you certainly haven't fixed mine. Freezes as soon as I open it on my iPad now, totally unusable. December 2021. Your latest update has saved me a small fortune. I thought the problem was with my iPad and was fully prepared to buy a new one. Now working perfectly again. phew!! 18th December 2022 - since the most recent update the Library button causes everything to freeze and the app has to be closed down and restarted. Latest update claims to have fixed glitches - it has not. Library button still causes everything to freeze. See above. If I change the order of photos in an album, will they stay where I put them or do I have to change the times/dates? Cant find any info online!

Another strange thing happened tonight. At the top of an album, where the title is, I now have a large photo with “Play memory” at the bottom left. I do not want this, it is totally irrelevant, and I cannot see how to remove it and stop it from happening again. Help!