{"slug": "google-photos", "name": "Google Photos", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 21, "warners": 8, "score": -1.685, "rising": 0.02, "first": "2025-12-06", "latest": "2026-10-09", "why": "I couldn't get off Google Photos, it's just too useful", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 6, "compare": 3, "warn": 8}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I couldn't get off Google Photos, it's just too useful", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://photos.google.com", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Google Photos"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 793352000, "item_id": 49584500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49584500", "by": "makeitdouble", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Photos is one of the rare Google property where the team is constantly pushing the envelope.", "excerpt": "It's about 3~4 years I haven't used Immich so it might have evolved a lot since then, but looking at their current roadmap there is a ton of features I use everyday in Photos that won't be there. And it's not to fault Immich, on the contrary, Photos is one of the rare Google property where the team is constantly pushing the envelope. I could combine it with a bunch of external tools to make do, but it would be crazy ", "context": "", "use_case": "photo management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cloud in a Bottle: making self-hosting accessible to everyone"}, {"id": 754977314, "item_id": 47186082, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47186082", "by": "andrewk17", "date": "2026-02-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I couldn't get off Google Photos, it's just too useful", "excerpt": "I spent the effort to de-google a several years back and switched to Proton. After years of being on Proton, I recently switched back to GMail. It didn't really make my life any better. And at this point, I think I see more value in having AI be able to piece together information to serve me up useful information than trying to protect my privacy within email (I couldn't get off Google Photos, it's just too useful).", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Google has actively improved my life"}, {"id": 752392610, "item_id": 47024538, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47024538", "by": "jitl", "date": "2026-02-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i\u2019m not going to switch to an ai vibe code of Google Photos", "excerpt": "i don\u2019t agree. most apps i use are not AI clone-able yet with AI\u2019s current faculties. i\u2019m not going to switch to an ai vibe code of Google Photos, Tailscale/Mulvadd VPN, or YouTube. For those three apps, i pay for cloud infrastructure. sure, you can say with enough AI i could vibe code a Tailscale backend system, but it sounds like it would take more tokens than my $20/mo ChatGPT plan PLUS a mountain of cloud provide", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI is going to kill app subscriptions"}, {"id": 752230112, "item_id": 47014382, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47014382", "by": "ramanova", "date": "2026-02-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The Google Photos is crazy good in comparison to the icloud.", "excerpt": "No phone is perfect, It's the overall complexity of the systems that is causing the multiple issues. I moved from iphone 13 to pixel 10pro and it wasn't such a great transition. It's totally not \"better\". Each have their own disadvantages. Android: - Pixel really sucks at apps and sharing content in app/ between apps. This is really killing me, because it's impossible to share more than image from whatsapp to telegra", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 796932240, "item_id": 49808265, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49808265", "by": "pfg_", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was shocked to see Google's Photos app send me an ad for buying printed printed framed photos.", "excerpt": "When I first switched to Android, I was shocked to see Google's Photos app send me an ad for buying printed printed framed photos. After turning that off, I haven't noticed many ads.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 789278804, "item_id": 49329925, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329925", "by": "vertnerd", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it feels like it might be the same Google Photos tactic of sucking people back into Google.", "excerpt": "We (wife and I) de-googled ourselves about a year and a half ago, moving half a TB of photos to Ente and canceling our paid Google subscription (while still keeping our gmail addresses). We set up our (Android) phones to back up photos to Ente and everything was lovely. Then I started noticing my wife's Google Photos storage use growing again. Somehow her phone had been switched to backing up on Google again. I turne", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789270289, "item_id": 49329393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329393", "by": "dogman1050", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This is exactly why I don't use it and have it disabled.", "excerpt": "This is exactly why I don't use it and have it disabled. The arrogance of that message is stunning. I use Aves and it works just fine.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo gallery", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789237921, "item_id": 49327370, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327370", "by": "distances", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the backup notification is what renders Photos unusable for me.", "excerpt": "And I use Google's own Gallery app instead of Photos. Like for others, the backup notification is what renders Photos unusable for me. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photosgo", "context": "", "use_case": "photo app", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}]}], "who": [{"by": "protimewaster", "context": "GrapheneOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331824", "date": "2026-08-17"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["photo storage", "photo backup", "photo management", "read-only photo viewer", "partner's photo sync", "photo library"], "compared": [{"slug": "immich", "name": "Immich", "co": 13, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 8}, {"slug": "ente", "name": "Ente", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "aves", "name": "Aves", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "apple-photos", "name": "Apple Photos", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "proton", "name": "Proton", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "syncthing", "name": "Syncthing", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tailscale", "name": "Tailscale", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49290545", "title": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?", "mentions": 6}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49985548", "title": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49801939", "title": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49787684", "title": "Noodle Gallery \u2013 Self-hosted photo and video manager forked from Immich", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49732513", "title": "Backups Aren't Simple", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49696453", "title": "People who can't picture anything are rewriting the science of imagination", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"compare": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"warn": 2}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-08": {"warn": 4, "neutral": 2}, "2026-09": {"compare": 2, "recommend": 1, "neutral": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 800253584, "item_id": 50015849, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50015849", "by": "mrheosuper", "date": "2026-10-09", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "i know Google does really well at keeping my data available, which is what you want for backup.", "excerpt": "I am honestly not sure. I use GG photo because that what i use first and i was too lazy to investigate better deal. Also, i know Google does really well at keeping my data available, which is what you want for backup.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What do you run on a $5 VPS that's worth keeping online 24/7?"}, {"id": 796932240, "item_id": 49808265, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49808265", "by": "pfg_", "date": "2026-09-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I was shocked to see Google's Photos app send me an ad for buying printed printed framed photos.", "excerpt": "When I first switched to Android, I was shocked to see Google's Photos app send me an ad for buying printed printed framed photos. After turning that off, I haven't noticed many ads.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy"}, {"id": 796642465, "item_id": 49790154, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49790154", "by": "jmathai", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Even when I adopted using Google Photos, it was as a read only viewer of my canonical photo library", "excerpt": "I know this post is about Noodle, but I want to talk about Immich. I believe I've spent, perhaps, the most time of anyone on earth on digital photo management (hard to quantify, but since 2005 - 2 startups, one acquisition, and an ongoing open source project used by thousands). I say that because I've refused to settle for most solutions in this space. Even when I adopted using Google Photos, it was as a read only vi", "context": "", "use_case": "read-only photo viewer", "switched_from": "", "story": "Noodle Gallery \u2013 Self-hosted photo and video manager forked from Immich"}, {"id": 795787362, "item_id": 49736710, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49736710", "by": "mmazzarolo", "date": "2026-09-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Google Photos on my partner\u2019s (syncing on Google Photos)", "excerpt": "I have a weird setup lol. I use a shared photos library with my partner (so that we have all family photos together) and have a MacBook Air that has Photos being download in raw quality and backups then via Time Machine on a Synology NAS. Plus, Synology photo sync on my iPhone (backing up on my NAS separately from Time Machine) AND Google Photos on my partner\u2019s (syncing on Google Photos). Yes it\u2019s horrible, just neve", "context": "", "use_case": "partner's photo sync", "switched_from": "", "story": "Backups Aren't Simple"}, {"id": 795330242, "item_id": 49708140, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49708140", "by": "j_bum", "date": "2026-09-15", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Maybe they could find something similar (Apple Photos, Google Photos, Immich, etc.)!", "excerpt": "Yes. It\u2019s called Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory (SDAM). I suffer from it quite badly. I can remember broad and important details, but struggle to remember even moderate details from anything beyond the past 2-3 months, with sharp falloff after that. Once I started using Immich and was able to see my old photos from across adulthood and childhood (I used to just dump them onto HDDs), I experienced a sharp ", "context": "", "use_case": "photo library", "switched_from": "", "story": "People who can't picture anything are rewriting the science of imagination"}, {"id": 793352000, "item_id": 49584500, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49584500", "by": "makeitdouble", "date": "2026-09-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Photos is one of the rare Google property where the team is constantly pushing the envelope.", "excerpt": "It's about 3~4 years I haven't used Immich so it might have evolved a lot since then, but looking at their current roadmap there is a ton of features I use everyday in Photos that won't be there. And it's not to fault Immich, on the contrary, Photos is one of the rare Google property where the team is constantly pushing the envelope. I could combine it with a bunch of external tools to make do, but it would be crazy ", "context": "", "use_case": "photo management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Cloud in a Bottle: making self-hosting accessible to everyone"}, {"id": 792625361, "item_id": 49539085, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539085", "by": "drdexebtjl", "date": "2026-09-02", "stance": "compare", "quote": "you'll find Google Photos pricing is actually pretty good.", "excerpt": "I use Immich, but saved me money it has not. Unless you actually go through the \"Backing up your photos\" step, you _will_ lose your photos, it's just a matter of time. And if you're like most people, that is probably not acceptable. And by the time you do the math for the cost of your backups, you'll find Google Photos pricing is actually pretty good. Still worth it, imo.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Saving money on Google Photos with Immich: Your own personal photo storage"}, {"id": 789405840, "item_id": 49337865, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49337865", "by": "Zopieux", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "This is exactly how I use non-auto-backup Photos", "excerpt": "Bad take. This is exactly how I use non-auto-backup Photos: 99% of my shitty smartphone pictures are local only, and I don't care to lose them. Occasionally though, I want to share or save a photo. Having this (small) button is quite convenient.", "context": "", "use_case": "local photos with occasional sharing", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789309184, "item_id": 49331824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49331824", "by": "protimewaster", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Google Photos on GrapheneOS, and Google Photos is blocked from network access", "excerpt": "I use Google Photos on GrapheneOS, and Google Photos is blocked from network access (via the network permission exposed on GOS). That must prevent this popup from occurring, because I've never seen it.", "context": "GrapheneOS user", "use_case": "photo viewing, network blocked", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789278804, "item_id": 49329925, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329925", "by": "vertnerd", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it feels like it might be the same Google Photos tactic of sucking people back into Google.", "excerpt": "We (wife and I) de-googled ourselves about a year and a half ago, moving half a TB of photos to Ente and canceling our paid Google subscription (while still keeping our gmail addresses). We set up our (Android) phones to back up photos to Ente and everything was lovely. Then I started noticing my wife's Google Photos storage use growing again. Somehow her phone had been switched to backing up on Google again. I turne", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789270289, "item_id": 49329393, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329393", "by": "dogman1050", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This is exactly why I don't use it and have it disabled.", "excerpt": "This is exactly why I don't use it and have it disabled. The arrogance of that message is stunning. I use Aves and it works just fine.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo gallery", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789237921, "item_id": 49327370, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49327370", "by": "distances", "date": "2026-08-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the backup notification is what renders Photos unusable for me.", "excerpt": "And I use Google's own Gallery app instead of Photos. Like for others, the backup notification is what renders Photos unusable for me. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photosgo", "context": "", "use_case": "photo app", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 789225762, "item_id": 49326610, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49326610", "by": "hiisukun", "date": "2026-08-16", "stance": "warn", "quote": "This exact issue was the final straw for me ditching google photos!", "excerpt": "This exact issue was the final straw for me ditching google photos! I had previously been using syncthing to sync & backup the photos, same as other files on my phone and laptop. I now use Immich [1] (mentioned elsewhere in this thread but without the proper link), having purchased a single-payment lifetime family licence. There is, as I understand it, no benefit to me to purchase it. After a month of use it was clea", "context": "", "use_case": "photo backup", "switched_from": "", "story": "How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?"}, {"id": 783241698, "item_id": 48952606, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952606", "by": "sillysideprojs", "date": "2026-07-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I'm not fond of Lightroom Cloud, Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc", "excerpt": "I'm building a self hosted photo gallery with lots of features minus having to share your photos with Google/Apple. I'm a photographer and I find myself often wanting to show someone a photo but then spend minutes trying to browse all my 30,000 photos to find it. I'm not fond of Lightroom Cloud, Google Photos, Apple Photos, etc, so I built my own, Your Own Gallery (Own Your Gallery). It can tag images for textual sea", "context": "photographer", "use_case": "photo management", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (July 2026)"}, {"id": 780267377, "item_id": 48766711, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48766711", "by": "MohamedMabrouk", "date": "2026-07-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use it regularly as an alternative along side Google photos.", "excerpt": "Immich is an amazing software. I use it regularly as an alternative along side Google photos. I keep in it large videos that I wouldn't upload normally to Google photos + the snappy experience at home vs Cloud-Bades solution.", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Immich v3.0.0 Released"}, {"id": 764528881, "item_id": 47783055, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47783055", "by": "jfoworjf", "date": "2026-04-15", "stance": "warn", "quote": "deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos", "excerpt": "This story is the one that finally pushed me to leave google. I moved off my ~20 year old Google account and deleted everything off their services including almost a decade of Google photos. I cancelled my Google one subscription for extra space. I'm now self hosting what I can and paying proton mail for everything else. I refuse to allow a company that will hand over data at the request of an administrative warrant ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data"}, {"id": 763373648, "item_id": 47710853, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710853", "by": "jmcphers", "date": "2026-04-09", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I'll never recommend Google Photos to anyone ever again.", "excerpt": "Google is no better. My family mostly uses iPhones, and on a big extended family vacation, I suggested we use Google Photos to create a shared album to document the trip. Everyone installed the Google Photos app on their iPhone so they could contribute... which resulted in all of them having their email accounts disabled. What happened? Google Photos on the iPhone backs up all your photos by default, and, like Micros", "context": "", "use_case": "shared photo album", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Microsoft Abuses Its Users"}, {"id": 754977314, "item_id": 47186082, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47186082", "by": "andrewk17", "date": "2026-02-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I couldn't get off Google Photos, it's just too useful", "excerpt": "I spent the effort to de-google a several years back and switched to Proton. After years of being on Proton, I recently switched back to GMail. It didn't really make my life any better. And at this point, I think I see more value in having AI be able to piece together information to serve me up useful information than trying to protect my privacy within email (I couldn't get off Google Photos, it's just too useful).", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Leaving Google has actively improved my life"}, {"id": 752392610, "item_id": 47024538, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47024538", "by": "jitl", "date": "2026-02-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "i\u2019m not going to switch to an ai vibe code of Google Photos", "excerpt": "i don\u2019t agree. most apps i use are not AI clone-able yet with AI\u2019s current faculties. i\u2019m not going to switch to an ai vibe code of Google Photos, Tailscale/Mulvadd VPN, or YouTube. For those three apps, i pay for cloud infrastructure. sure, you can say with enough AI i could vibe code a Tailscale backend system, but it sounds like it would take more tokens than my $20/mo ChatGPT plan PLUS a mountain of cloud provide", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "AI is going to kill app subscriptions"}, {"id": 752230112, "item_id": 47014382, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47014382", "by": "ramanova", "date": "2026-02-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The Google Photos is crazy good in comparison to the icloud.", "excerpt": "No phone is perfect, It's the overall complexity of the systems that is causing the multiple issues. I moved from iphone 13 to pixel 10pro and it wasn't such a great transition. It's totally not \"better\". Each have their own disadvantages. Android: - Pixel really sucks at apps and sharing content in app/ between apps. This is really killing me, because it's impossible to share more than image from whatsapp to telegra", "context": "", "use_case": "photo storage", "switched_from": "", "story": "Apple, fix my keyboard before the timer ends or I'm leaving iPhone"}, {"id": 738765298, "item_id": 46172831, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46172831", "by": "sylens", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "compare", "quote": "Once they add a few more features to support things like smart albums, I\u2019ll be able to drop Google Photos entirely.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve experimented with both Immich and Ente over the last year and run Immich in parallel with Google Photos right now for my family. Once they add a few more features to support things like smart albums, I\u2019ll be able to drop Google Photos entirely. I love that the consumer space is getting this kind of attention. It\u2019s one of the biggest opportunities for big tech to lock people into their ecosystem, as photos are so", "context": "", "use_case": "family photos", "switched_from": "", "story": "Self-hosting my photos with Immich"}]}