I think going back to Google Photos is a good idea.

My Synology is slowly running out of space, and one of the things that take a lot of space are the photos and video - most are from my phones, but I also store the RAW files from the camera. Things add up quickly over the years, and I’m almost at 50GB of storage between all of these. Since the Synology is also used for backups for two computers and a storage of movies and shows, I’m already at 80% capacity.

But there are other reasons for choosing Google Photos.

My photos in Google’s storage date back to over 10 years ago. There’s a big gap starting around 2019, when I stopped using it in favor of the Synology. Going back to now is familiar and easy. I’ve been paying for extra space I’m already paying for two years since Google Drive is the only place my father (who lives in Israel) is comfortable using to exchange files and videos with me. That’s how we keep in touch; we send a recording to each other every couple of weeks.

My father is not the only one who uses Google Photos. In fact, this is one of the only apps (or only app?) my family, friends, and I all share in common (to compare, my communications are split between Signal, WhatsApp, and iOS Messages). It’s easy and quick to share photos through Google because everyone has an account there. My less techy family members get easily lost on social platforms, let alone an aging Synology service that requires a separate user name and password. I always resort to sending them photos through WhatsApp. Sure, I could try to play around with OwnCloud or similar, but it will be left unused as they will refuse to use it and take more resources from the already full Synology.

Then there are also the nice features that come with the service: best photos and videos are selected automatically, shared albums on the fly, and, of course, the built-in search with facial recognition. Google Photos also comes with tools that help me delete photos and videos I don’t need, like screenshots or blurry images.

Many don’t like the idea of Google scanning their faces and feeding it to its AI and/or other entities, but these days, this is a moot point. Everyone is scanning photos. If not a service you already use, then local and federal governments, your workplace software, and more. There’s no way around that. Besides, most of my friends and family are on Instagram anyway, which is probably even worse. Meanwhile, I enjoy typing “Bridge in Italy” into Google Photos and getting exactly what I am looking for. Synology’s search (which also uses some AI implantation) is slow and inaccurate.

I understand that Google might close my account one day (they already did in the past), and my photos will be gone, so I’m saving what’s important to me elsewhere. In fact, Jack just mentioned how he prefers to print his photos and taught his daughter to do the same, and Patrick said that paper is a more relaible way of saving things. I agree, and I do have some of my favorite photos printed around me, but most of the photos in Google Photos are noise. It is not bad noise, just life noise, stuff from every day. The photos I want to save will still go to the Synology and to my blog, or my blog and then Synology (I back up my blog every month with photos included), so I think I’m doing OK in that department.