Google Photos

Google Photos prepares to bring ‘storage saver’ conversion to Android app

Ben Schoon | Apr 11 2024 - 5:30 am PT

The Google Photos app for Android appears to be bringing a web feature to mobile, as the ability to convert stored photos to a lower “storage saver” format is in the works.

Back in 2021, Google Photos ended its unlimited photo storage policy, with all users being given 15GB of storage space before they’re required to start paying. Along with that, Google also added the option to convert a photo that’s been backed up at full size to a more storage-friendly format.

Now, that option appears to be coming to mobile.

In the latest Google Photos update, Android Authority and PiunikaWeb spotted that a new “Recover storage” section is being added to the “Manage storage” section of Photos. The sole option in that section is “Convert photos to Storage saver,” which is ripped directly from the web version of Google Photos.

Google briefly explains on a pop-up:

Recover some storage by switching existing photos & videos, when possible, from Original quality to Storage saver quality.

Doesn’t affect items stored or added elsewhere on Google, such as in Gmail, Google Drive, or YouTube.

Some items backed up on Pixel devices may not be affected.

This action can’t be undone, but can potentially save quite a lot of storage on your account.

Right now, this isn’t publicly available on Google Photos for Android, but it’s claimed that when manually enabled, the functionality works. As such, it’s likely that Google intends to release this reasonably soon.