Google Photos and Drive are two different apps at handling files. However, when it comes to better management of photos, you might be confused over which one to opt for. Both do this job pretty efficiently, but in certain aspects, they are poles apart. Therefore, in this guide, we will be doing an in-depth comparison between these two apps from Google and ultimately which one should you use for efficiently managing your photos. Let’s begin. Also, have a look at the steps to fix the Backup Now option under Backup to Google Drive.
Google Photos vs Drive: The Basic Functionalities
Google Photos, in its simplest form, could be called a gallery app with some photo-editing capabilities. Drive, on the other hand, is a cloud storage service provided by the Silicon Valley giants. The former allows viewing all the photos stored on your device. However, that’s not the case with the latter one. Until and unless you manually upload files over to Drive, it will be empty by default. Without the internet, Drive is of no use, whereas you could still view images stored on your device via Google Photos, even in offline mode.
Google Photos vs Drive: File Support
Google Photos supports all the popular images and videos format. These include JPG, PNG, MP4, etc. Apart from that, it also has support for GIF files. But that’s it. If we talk about Google Drive, you could store virtually any file type, including the likes of PDF, EXE, APK, ZIP, JPG, MP4 and countless others.
Google Photos vs Drive: Storage
Without a shadow of a doubt, Google Photos is a clear cut winner, if we restricted ourselves to the handling of images. Both Photos and Google Drive provides 15GB of storage, to begin with. But always keep one thing in mind. This 15GB is not allocated to individual Google apps. Drive, Photos, Gmail and all the Google services signed in with a common Google ID share this 15GB. However, Google Photos still have a pretty nifty feature that outdoes Drive.
The former gives you unlimited storage, although with a catch. You could store as many photos and videos you want, in high quality. By high quality we mean, a slightly compressed version fo the original file. However, general users wouldn’t be able to notice any considerable difference in quality. This is because the images are compressed to 16MP whereas the videos get compressed to 1080p, which is more than enough, considering the benefits attached. However, if you still wish to use the Original Quality, then you’ll have to use from that 15GB of shared quota.
Handling of Files
This is one area where Google Drive outclass Photos, and by quite a big margin. You cannot create a new folder in Photos. Or even moving of images and videos from one location to another is not possible. It will, however, will create a new folder for apps dealing with your media files (like any photo-editor app). But you cannot rename or move any other files into or out of it from the app. For that, you’ll have to use any file explorer. You could only create a new album from within the app.
Contrary to Photos, Google Drive provides all these functionalities. You could create a new folder, rename it, move files within it and other related things. And all of these functions could very well be carried from its Android app itself.
Other Features of Drive and Google Photos
Apart from the usual functionalities, both Photos and Google Drive comes with some other useful features too. In the case of Google Photos, you have an Editor mode. This further host some filters, Light Color, and Pop effects, Crop Document and a Doodle feature. Apart from that, the app also comes with an integrated Google Lens. Moreover, you could also create an Album, Movie, Collage or Animation.
Google Drive also has one or two features up its sleeves. You could create a new Google Docs, Sheets or Slides right from within the app. Moreover, it also comes with its own scanning tool (OCR). However, Google Lens isn’t yet integrated into the app.
Which one should you use
Well, both have its advantages and drawbacks, but if we restrict ourselves to the management of photos and videos, Google Photos has an upper hand over Drive. The automatic backup and sync functionality, various photo-editing features and unlimited storage of media files at high quality really make it the go-to choice. What is your say on this? Do you share the same thoughts as of mine? Do let us know in the comments section below.
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