How Google Is Addressing User Confusion Over Backing Up Photos
Google recently removed free photo and video storage. While alternatives have cropped up practically overnight, that hasn't prevented people from ponying up for Google's venerable service. You can chalk it up to the ease of backing up to the (Google) cloud and accessibility on any device, not to mention the easy and powerful editing tools, and near-psychic image search and identification features.
To make life a little easier for users, Mountain View has tweaked its terminology centered around backup and storage across its web, mobile apps, and its Help Center. It's not a feature-drop obviously, but it should makes things "intuitive and easy to remember", as Google puts it.
One of the terminology changes can be found at the top of the Photo settings menu. What was once "Backup and Sync" is now simply called "Backup". Select "Backup" and you'll see the other change (under Settings)—"Backup quality" replaces the more cryptic and confusing "Upload size".
Note that there is no difference to how photos and videos are stored—backups still count against your Google account storage quota. We think that, especially for new users, "Backup quality" makes way more sense, bringing it more inline with similar terminology used in other services. Dropping "Sync" seems appropriate as well, since syncing is technically done via the cloud and not in app. Maybe it was throwing people off?
Nonetheless, these changes are Google's attempt to reduce any confusion brought about by the older terminology. It seems that this is a server-side update and is available right now to all users. Let us know how these QOL changes affect how your use the service, or if you're moved on to other solutions?
