Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
A few weeks back, my colleague Rita El Khoury wrote about Google One losing its appeal but that she’s locked into the service primarily because of Google Photos. We also asked our readers and YouTube subscribers what they think of Google One. The results scream a growing discontent amongst those who currently subscribe to Google One plans.
Our website and YouTube polls gathered over 14,000 votes combined, and while a lot of people said they plan to keep their Google One subscriptions, their reasons for sticking around stem from compulsion, familiarity, and a lack of better Google Photos alternatives than anything else.
The general sentiment of current subscribers is one that should concern Google.
“It is pricier than other options available. But the forward and backward syncing capability of Google Drive is unparalleled, at least in Android. So until a day comes when Microsoft or someone else comes up with some similar syncing and storage capabilities at a lower price, I cannot switch. I am stuck,” said one YouTube user who voted in our poll
At the same time, a large set of Google One subscribers are questioning whether they should continue paying for their subscriptions or move to other cloud storage services. Of course, there are those who never subscribed to Google One and a small group of users who subscribed and switched to other options. However, the general sentiment of current subscribers is one that should concern Google.
“Google One ripped me off by offering me a trial of their AI plan and evidently converted my 2TB plan to a 2TB AI plan. When I decided I wanted to go back to my regular plan, they shaved four months off and said my new renewal will be August instead of December. This is kind of a “last straw” with Google. I bought a OneDrive plan (which is actually cheaper and gives each family user their own 1TB bucket and includes MS Office) and am moving over to that. The sticky issue is – of course – photos. I am using Google Takeout to grab all my photos, but I am still figuring out how best to categorize everything in OneDrive Pictures,” commented an Android Authority reader.
“I am just going to get a NAS on my own network and probably just back up all my photos to that instead. I have a 2TB plan for the family right now and the only reason I bought it was storage for photos. I have a Pixel and do use the VPN but I can live without it. I wish there was a newcomer to the phone game but we are stuck with either Google or Apple services,” said another.
It looks like Google has its work cut out for it.
“I dumped Photos as soon as Google yanked the “free” rug out from under us because the writing was on the wall. Thanks to the draconian way Google has been acting about YouTube and ads, I won’t be investing in any of their products or services in the future,” said a reader who moved on from Google One entirely.
Meanwhile, many Google One users would like new additions to the service to make it more lucrative for them.
“I keep hoping that we’ll get the Nest Aware and Fitbit subscriptions included like they have in the UK. That would save me some money and help keep me in the ecosystem,” said one user.
“I use cloud storage and YouTube Premium. I wish Google merged these two subscriptions into one. But that will probably never happen,” said one of our YouTube subscribers. Another reader echoed this request, saying, “I hate that I pay for One and YouTube Premium. Give me a combo deal.”
It looks like Google has its work cut out for it. The company recently announced that it’s killing Google One VPN to make way for better features in Google One plans. We hope the company listens to some of this user feedback and takes the necessary steps to make Google One more appealing with time.
