Google One, Google's paid consumer storage product, makes some features free
Google on Wednesday announced that it's making some features of Google One, its paid consumer storage product, available for free.
Any Google user can now take advantage of the Google One phone backup feature, regardless of whether they have a Google One paid membership. That includes iPhone users -- Google is rolling out a new iOS app that lets users store photos, videos, contacts, and calendar events with Google. Additionally, Google One is offering a new, free storage manager tool.
Google introduced Google One two years ago, creating a distinct brand for the consumer version of Google Drive that included different benefits and cheaper prices for data storage. The new product made Google's consumer storage plans more competitive against options like Dropbox and Microsoft's OneDrive.
Last year, Google launched an automatic phone backup for Google One members on Android devices. Now, the feature will be available to any Google user via the Google One app on Android or iOS. The app backs up content like photos, videos, contacts, and calendar events using the free 15 GB of storage that comes with a Google account.
Meanwhile, the new storage manager feature will help users understand how they're using their storage and help them free up space across Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos. The new feature will be available on the mobile app and the web.