Matti Robinson
18 Oct 2019 12:13
Google Photos is one of the most useful pieces of software the company packages with Android. Offering free cloud storage, AI tricks, and convenient UI, Android users need not look further for their photo storage needs.
Even better, if you are lucky enough to own one of the previousu Pixel phones, you might be able to store unlimited original quality photos in the cloud for zero dollars a month. Even the new Pixel 4 no longer enjoys this privilege.
While Pixel 4 doesn't get free cloud storage, iPhone users seem to be able to upload to their heart's content for free.
According to 9to5Mac this is due to the super efficient HEIC/HEIF format iPhone uses for the photos.
See, if Google tried to compress the photos, as it does with the free tier cloud service, it would increase the size of the photos from iPhones. Due to this it is cheaper for Google to let iPhone users upload their photos in the original format.
This is at least what the Reddit user discovering this suggests. Android 10 is technically able to use HEIC/HEIF as well, but so far Pixels haven't used it.
One could imagine that Google is trying to figure out compression methods for both the free tier quality as well as the ultimate original quality photos. Android 10 already technically supports HEIC/HEIF.