With the updated Google Photos, pictures and photos that you’ve accumulated on social media and messaging apps will no longer be automatically backed up by default. Simply put, pictures obtained and photos captured with your phone’s camera will simply remain inside the device, and not uploaded to Google’s cloud. Why Google is doing is, unsurprisingly, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; due to quarantines and isolation, the search engine has seen a spike in the number of photos and video being sent and uploaded to its servers. Because of this, it’s turning off the auto-back up function in an effort to preserve its bandwidth and internet resources.
Just to be clear, the ability to automatically back up your photos to the cloud hasn’t been removed; you can still activate the feature to continue uploading pictures automatically and Google has even provided the relevant instructions to perform the action. As for which app is affected by Google Photos’ change, the list includes the usual suspects: Facebook, Helo, Instagram, LINE, Messages, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Twitter, Viber, and WhatsApp. (Source: Android Police via Engadget, 9to5Google)
