The catch: images are compressed to 15 megapixels and videos are compressed to 1080p. Images and videos uploaded to Google Photos using the High quality option don't count-they're free. Media uploaded using the Original quality option count against your Google storage, same as any other file. Google Photos offers two upload options: Original quality and High quality. Google Photos offers free storage, as long as you're willing to compress your files. This is worth doing when considering Google Photos, because photos and videos uploaded to Google Drive count against your Google storage limits. Your Google account probably has a storage limit- you can check your current usage here. So let's take a closer look at the difference between Google Photos and Google Drive. Those are the basics, but there's a bit more to it than that. Compressed photos and videos don't count against your Google storage limits, but uncompressed ones do. You can also do some basic photo editing. You can sync photos and videos from your phone and/or computer, view them in a timeline organized by date, sort them into albums, and even search the photos themselves. Google Photos is a photo and video syncing and backup service. There are no photography-specific features, and everything you upload counts against your Google storage limits. You can manually upload photos and videos to it, sort them using folders, and share those folders.

But after looking into it, it turns out these services are pretty different. That seems like one too many-at least, it did to me. Google offers two different apps you can use to upload and share photos: Google Drive and Google Photos.

Google pictures