What is the difference between ICloud and Google One I had Google backup for $2.99 now the Google One is charging $29.99
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Google One vs ICloud
iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18
iCloud Photos isn't a separate storage device like an extra hard drive. iCloud Drive and iCloud Photos and iCloud backup do similar but different things.
iCloud is a synchronization service. When you engage iCloud Photos, for instance, then the Library on that device is kept exactly the same as the iCloud Photos Library. So, for instance, if you take a picture with your iPhone, it is added to the iPhone's Photos Library, copied to iCloud Photos Library at iCloud.com, and then copied to the Photos Library on each of the other devices that you have connected. If you delete a picture on your Mac, then that picture is deleted at iCloud and on all the other devices. So you can't think of iCloud Photos as a full backup service, since it backs up mistakes.
With iCloud, you can use Optimize Storage on a Mac, on your iPhone, or on your iPad. If you set a device to "Optimize Storage,"on your iPhone, then Photos may store only smaller images on the phone and rely on iCloud to keep the full sized images. This is great, since with the lower resolution images you can scan through pictures very quickly, and they look great on the screen. So, if Optimize is chosen, and you want to edit a picture, Photos will reach out to iCloud to get a full sized image for you to work on. It's the same for printing or anything that demands the full picture. Your optimized Library may take up less than 20% of the space of a fully downloaded Library. But an optimized Library may be kept larger than that if the extra storage space is not needed. Optimize on iCloud Drive doesn't use smaller files, of course, but it allows you to save space by automatically storing some files at iCloud until they are needed.
I don't know much about Google One, but it looks like it doesn't work like this at all. I see no real automatic synchronization, and it certainly doesn't offer optimized storage. If you want automatic synchronization among different Apple devices, or if you'd like to have seamless optimized storage, especially for pictures, then iCloud is the way to go. If you don't care for synchronization or optimizing your storage, then other services might be better for you, depending on price and your own needs.
BeaconCB wrote:
now the Google One is charging $29.99
Google One has no such plan.
What is the difference between iCloud and Google One?
