A while back Google Photos was launched and it indeed is pretty much amazing. Not only does it offer free, unlimited back-up space for your photos and memories, it also automatically creates collages, slide-shows and movies from your uploaded library. Although I love it for its versatile features, there are certain loopholes into it that you better look out for if you are choosing it as your go to app for photos. Like for instance uninstalling Google Photos won’t stop your phone from uploading pictures to your account.
Recently David Arnott discovered hundreds of photos he thought he deleted preserved in his Google Photos account–all taken weeks after he uninstalled the backup app. and Nashville Business Journal was quick to highlight it!! Google Photos uses Android’s centralized Google settings menu (which also handles location data, search functions ad settings and more) to determine backups rather than using its own settings menu, so if you choose to automatically upload new pictures to the cloud when installing the Google Photos app, those settings will live on even after the app is wiped from your phone!! So it’s important to remember that when you are opting out of this app make sure you hit “Google Photo Backup” in your phone’s menu and change the option.
It’s not a fluke, either: I tried it myself, deleting not only Google Photos, but also disabling my phone’s Google Drive and Google Plus apps, and my phone still backed up every photo I took.
– David Arnott, Nashville Business Journal writer
There has been some kinda buzz about the app’s security as well, as it uses supposedly “unguessable” public URLs for its images which can be a big security threat to some users. However, Aravind Krishnaswamy who was an engineering lead on Google Photos claimed that “it is much harder to guess than your password.” Although Arvind’s claims sound comforting, recent discovery about the app that a service you apparently rejected is somehow collating his most precious moments without his knowledge would be a shock to any one.
