Google To Fix a Google Photos Bug That Allowed iPhones to Use Unlimited Storage
Google disappointed many users when it announced that the Pixel 4 devices won’t have the unlimited photo storage options in Google Photos. Previous versions of Pixel had in fact highlighted this feature. Things got a different turn when it was found that Google Photos was actually allowing iPhone devices to get unlimited original-quality photo backups to Photos. Because the iPhone photos are uploaded in the HEIC format, this issue was happening and there was an online ruckus about it. Now, Google has confirmed that it will be fixing this ‘bug.’
Google confirmed to Android Police that it is aware about the bug and that it is working to fix it. The whole fiasco happened because iPhone normally saves the photographs in a different format called HEIC. This ultra-compressed format is so efficient that an HEIC file takes up less amount of space than a JPEG file that Google Photos would be compressing. Due to this drastic difference in space consumption, Google Photos does not count these as high quality and the iPhone photographs would be retaining the complete quality in the end. Of course, this issue sparked controversy, especially in light of the recent Pixel happenings.
Both developers and users are wondering how such a bug crept into the Google systems in the first place. It is not also clear how the company is planning to fix the issue. For instance, it’s not clear whether the existing photos stored in HEIC would be converted into a standard JPEG format. More importantly, it is not clear whether Apple is planning to assign the right amount of storage space that is taken by the HEIC images. Soon enough, however, Apple iPhone users would stop having this privilege of the unlimited photo storage space though.
Jill Abramson is the senior news reporter for All Go News. She covers Technology for All Go News. Prior to working for All Go News, she spent nearly a decade as a senior staff reporter for The Gizmodo. She has a rich experience of 16 years and in her career, she has explored how technology is changing the workplace.