Google Photos

Google Photos Review: The Search Is Still Unmatched, the Storage Is Not Free

What 15 GB actually means in practice

The 15 GB is not per app — it is shared across Gmail, Drive and Photos on the same account. A phone that shoots 12-megapixel photos and the occasional clip will use it up in a year or two; anyone shooting 4K video will hit it in months. There is a storage-saver setting that recompresses uploads, which buys time without changing the arithmetic. Beyond that you either subscribe to Google One or you start deleting. The app is honest about the number, at least: the settings screen shows what is using the space and offers to clear the obvious duplicates.

Search, and why it is still the reason to use it

Type a word and it finds the photo. Not a filename or a tag you added — the actual content. People and pets are grouped automatically, places come from location data, and text inside images is indexed, so searching for a word printed on a document or a shop sign works. Nothing else on a phone does this as reliably. It is also the part that explains the privacy trade: the indexing happens because the library is processed on Google's servers, which is the arrangement you are accepting when you turn backup on.

Editing: the free set and the paywalled set

The free editor is competent — crop, light, colour, a decent set of presets and a genuinely useful auto suggestion. The headline features are not free: Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, HDR effect and Portrait Light require a Google One subscription or a Pixel device. Magic Eraser is very good on small objects against simple backgrounds and obvious on anything complicated. If you were installing this for the eraser specifically, price the subscription first.