Many people have relied on Google Photos for a long time to manage their ever-expanding digital photo libraries. Recently, some people have considered switching to Microsoft's OneDrive, because of its large storage capacity for Microsoft 365 subscribers and integration with Windows. But is it a wise choice?
Photo-first mobile experience
The first impression of any photo service is on your smartphone. Google Photos provides a clean, intuitive user experience that puts your photos and videos first.
For a long time, OneDrive was considered a more general-purpose cloud storage service. It only offers a Photos tab, where your photos are displayed in a grid – no smart groupings and no additional features to interact with them. This makes it a bit inferior to Google Photos, especially since Google Photos is a standalone app and has a separate Google Drive app for general purpose storage needs.
However, the recent refresh of the OneDrive app brought a dedicated Photos section, allowing you to use it as a dedicated photos app. At first glance, it mimics a more photo-focused app like Google Photos or the gallery app you might find pre-installed on your smartphone.
The app refresh now offers a chronological timeline of media, making it easy to scroll through and find specific moments. And that's exactly the reason why people try this app instead of Google Photos.
AI-powered photo search and management
In addition to a scrolling timeline for photos and videos, photo apps must visually display our memories. One of the areas where Google Photos really shines is its AI-powered photo management and search features.
Google's advanced Machine Learning algorithms can analyze your photos and identify people, places, objects, and even abstract concepts. For example, you can search for “beach” in Google Photos and it will accurately show all your beach photos, even if you've never tagged them.
You can search for specific people, even if you haven't labeled them, thanks to facial recognition. Searching for things like “birthday cake” or “sunset” will bring you relevant results. This powerful search function makes it easy to find exactly the photo you're looking for, even in a huge library.
OneDrive offers search capabilities, but they are significantly more limited. This means you need to rely heavily on manual tagging and sorting if you want to create a structured library.
One key difference is the emphasis on smart albums, which are automatically created based on people and places. Both OneDrive and Google Photos offer automatic curation, highlighting special moments you may have forgotten. However, Google Photos can automatically create collages and animations from your photos and videos. This is a feature that OneDrive is still missing.
Google Photos AI-powered search makes interacting with your photo library much easier. OneDrive's search function is quite basic by comparison as it lacks any form of intelligent management.
Ability to edit photos
Both Google Photos and OneDrive offer built-in photo editing tools, but their capabilities and ease of use differ significantly. If you use a Pixel smartphone, Google Photos offers additional AI-powered features to edit and manipulate your photos and videos.
Google offers a comprehensive set of editing options that you can use whether you're a regular user or someone looking for more advanced controls. You can easily adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and other basic parameters. There are also multiple filters, cropping tools, and even more advanced features like selective editing and color highlighting.
The app also provides smart suggestions, automatically improving photos with just one tap. Note, some Google photo editing features are only available to Google One subscribers.
Compared to OneDrive, OneDrive's photo editing capabilities are quite basic. You can crop, rotate, and adjust basic parameters, but that's it. There are no filters, no advanced editing tools, and no AI-powered features like object removal.
For basic adjustments, OneDrive is enough. However, if you want to do anything beyond simple cropping and brightness adjustments, you'll need to use a separate photo editing app. In contrast, Google offers a surprisingly powerful and user-friendly editing experience right in the Photos app.
Storage and sharing features
Google offers unlimited free storage for photos. All photos and videos count toward storage in your Google account, shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. Google offers 15GB of free storage, and you can purchase more storage through Google One plans.
OneDrive, part of Microsoft 365, offers a slightly different approach. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365, you'll get 1TB of OneDrive storage. This plan is on par with Google One plans, but you also get access to Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, etc. Without a subscription, OneDrive only offers 5GB of storage.
In terms of sharing, both platforms allow you to directly share photos and albums with others. Google makes it easy to share with other Google users and offers collaborative albums so multiple people can contribute photos.
To be honest, choosing between Google Photos and OneDrive largely depends on whether you're subscribed to Microsoft 365 or not. If you need a lot of storage and are invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, OneDrive's 1TB plan is very attractive. However, Google's various Google One plans also offer plenty of storage, and the higher free storage limit of 15GB on a Google account may be more suitable for those who don't want to sign up for a paid plan. fee.
Once you use OneDrive as your primary photo app on your phone, you'll find that it's a capable cloud storage solution. However, it doesn't quite compare to Google Photos as a comprehensive mobile photo management tool. Google Photos excels in the areas that matter most to mobile users. It's an intuitive photo experience with powerful editing capabilities and powerful AI-powered curation features.
OneDrive feels like a more traditional file storage service with some photo viewing capabilities added. Its interface is less intuitive, its search functionality is limited, and its editing tools are very basic.
While it offers ample storage space, especially for Microsoft 365 subscribers, it lacks the sophistication and smarts that make Google Photos so appealing.
If you don't want to pay for Google One, a reasonable alternative is to use both. You can use Google Photos as your main photo app and then move your old photos to OneDrive when you reach the 15GB storage limit. This isn't the best approach, but it gives you the biggest advantages of both options.
