Whether you are satisfied with 15GB of free space in Google Photos or have upgraded to Google One to have more storage space, the truth is that this capacity is not unlimited and you need to carefully manage the amount of saved data every day.
Some file formats take up more space than others, and this could be the reason why Google is considering a new approach.
photographers and photography enthusiasts often prioritize the use of RAW files over compressed formats. These files store data from the camera sensor in almost original state, without much processing.
Thanks to that, RAW photos contain more details than other formats. However, because of the large amount of information stored, RAW images have a significantly larger capacity than compressed formats such as JPG - which uses a data compression mechanism to save capacity.
Not only do they take up more storage space, RAW photos also make the website load slower and take a lot of time and data to load.
Currently, Google Photos still backs up both RAW and JPG photos at the same time. However, seeing that RAW photos consume much faster space than JPG, Google may soon take a policy to limit backing up this format.
When analyzing version 9.8 of the Pixel Camera app, Android Authority discovered a caption in the source code that showed that the RAW photo would no longer be backed up by default. If Google actually makes this change, users will have to proactively turn on the RAW photo backup option, otherwise, only JPG files will be saved to Google Photos.
In addition, Google may also be developing a feature specifically for Pixel users to help distinguish photo formats more easily.
Google's consideration of changing the RAW photo backup policy could have a significant impact on photography enthusiasts, especially professional photographers and those who regularly take photos in this format.
Google has not yet confirmed the official launch date for the change, but Pixel and Google Photos users should prepare for the new adjustments in the near future.
