However, we have some good news and that is if you are a Google Pixel owner, it seems that you will be exempt to this change. Google has noted that Pixel device owners will continue to receive free and unlimited “High quality” backups on Google Photos for the foreseeable future, but whether or not that will change further down the line remains to be seen.
It also remains to be seen whether or not Google will apply this to future Pixel phones as one of the perks, or if this only applies to the current and older lineup. For those unfamiliar, Google Photos allows users to backup their photos and videos at either “High quality” or “Original”. Photos stored at “High quality” offered unlimited storage, while photos stored in “Original” counted towards a user’s storage limit.
With this change, Google is essentially saying that all Google Photos users, save for Pixel owners, will no longer enjoy those privileges come 2021. Google One is currently priced at $1.99 a month for 100GB which is pretty reasonable, so if you do have a lot of photos you’d like to store in the cloud, it might be worth checking out.