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Google and Apple now allow transfer between their photo cloud services

Google and Apple now allow transfer between their photo cloud services

Users of Google and Apple’s photo cloud services can now transfer images between them. It was already possible to export photos and videos from iCloud to Google Photos, but now it can also be done the other way around: from Google Photos to iCloud.

The ability to exchange photos between the two companies’ services fulfills a promise the companies made as signatories to the Data Transfer Initiative (DTI). This initiative was established in 2023 to promote data portability between major tech companies such as Apple, Meta, and Google. The DTI is the successor to the earlier Data Transfer Project that Microsoft and Twitter were already part of.

Reciprocity realized

The ability to transfer images to and from both services, rather than just from Apple to Google, means that an important objective of reciprocity has been realized, according to a statement on the DTI website.

Of course, it was already possible to manually download images from one service and upload them back to the other. Still, with this implementation, this can be done directly, securely, and with the user’s privacy in mind.

Variable amount of free storage

Still, there is a catch, according to The Register. That catch concerns storage issues: Google Photos offers a free account up to 15 GB, while iCloud offers only 5 GB without additional costs.

That means the familiar prompt to upgrade to a paid subscription -or free up space on the iPhone- could appear much faster and more often when users start using iCloud to store photos and videos from Google Photos.

Cost of cloud storage

For iCloud, the cheapest paid subscription of 0.99 cents monthly gives users 50 GB of storage. For 2.99 euros, this rises to 200 GB. Those who pay all but a penny off a tenner are guaranteed 2 TB at Apple.

Google’s cheapest subscription, 1.99 euros, offers storage up to 100 GB. The company’s ‘premium’ subscription also offers 2TB for 9.99 euros. The highest tier at Google involves an AI subscription, where users get the help of the AI assistant Gemini Advanced on top of their 2TB. That does cost 21.99 euros per month.

Instructions for the two platforms are available here for Apple and here for Google for those who want to know how things work.

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