Google Drive changes: Google One and price drops
Google unveiled Google One, an upgrade for the company's paid consumer storage plans, yesterday. Google One provides paying Google customers with access to storage plans ranging from 100 Gigabytes to 30 Terabyte, access to experts, family sharing, and other benefits such as Google Play credit or hotel discounts on Google Search.
Google One is being rolled out right now to consumers worldwide. Google announced a new storage plan and a price drop for another plan yesterday as well.
Nothing changes for the majority of storage plans available; options start at $1.99 for 100 Gigabytes of storage and the price of high end plans that give customers access to 10, 20 or 30 Terabyte of storage does not change either.
Google One
The price of the 2 Terabyte plan, however, drops from $19.99 per month to $9.99, and it replaces the 1 Terabyte plan that won't be offered anymore.
Lastly, customers who need more than 100 Gigabytes of space but way less than 2 Terabyte can subscribe to the new 200 Gigabyte plan for $2.99 per month.
Existing 1 Terabyte customers will be upgraded to the new 2 Terabyte plan for $9.99 per month automatically by Google, and all other users will be upgraded to Google One as well in the coming months. The rollout starts in the United States and will be expanded globally afterward.
While most customers won't notice changes to their storage quota, as only 1 Terabyte customers get upgraded to 2 Terabytes of storage, Google revealed that Google One will provide paying customers with additional benefits.
Customers will receive an email message that informs them about the change and the benefits of the new Google One service.
Google One offers three additional benefits that Google Drive plans did not offer until now:
- Access to Google experts for customer support.
- Family sharing to manage up to five family members under a single plan.
- Extras
Customers gain "access to Google experts" according to Google.
People who use a lot of storage tend to use a lot of other Google products, too. So with Google One you get one-tap access to experts for help with our consumer products and services.
It is the first time that Google Drive customers get direct access to customer support agents. The Verge reports that customers get access to live chat support but Google's announcement does not confirm that.
Paid storage plans may be shared with up to five family members, a much requested feature according to Google. Paying subscribers can add up to five family members to a plan to share it within the family.
Each family member gets private storage that is separate from each other.
Comparison
Google customers get 2 Terabyte of online storage for $9.99 per month when they are moved to the new Google One plan. They get customer support access, family sharing, and some other benefits next to that.
Microsoft customers can subscribe to Office 365 Personal for $69.99 per year if they subscribe directly on the Office site, and for less if they purchase the plan elsewhere.
The $69.99 is good for 1 Terabyte of storage and one user, and includes access to Microsoft Office, customer support via chat or phone, and 60 minutes of Skype per month.
Apple customers may upgrade the 5 Gigabytes of free storage that they get to 50 Gigabyte, 200 Gigabyte or 2 Terabyte plans for $0.99, $2.99, or $9.99 respectively. Apple iCloud customers may share plans with family members.
My Google Drive bookmark still goes to drive.google.com, but they have changed the display to a horrid white-on-white layout. It’s super-harsh on the eyes. I’ll have to look into one of those extensions that reduce website brightness. An option to keep the old layout colors would have been nice. I wonder if they ever ask computer users if they like their documents displayed as white icons on a white background …
I discontinued using all cloud services awhile ago.
Noting that documents stored on remote severs pretty much become their property and are analyzed, not something I want especially from Google, the worlds largest ad agency.
It’s another way for them to track and display “relevant content” (more advertising)….creepy
When you use Google’s paid services there is a different contract/agreement in place, with regards to how they use your data (if at all). It’s not the same as the free services.
The good thing about googe drive/one is that you get proper preview of Raw files. Where Amazon’s are to small to view and one drive do not show anything except the file name.
I had not received an email yet about Google One, but that is what Google Drive is now called when I click on my taskbar Google Drive icon that I had previously upgraded tor a yearly fee. Noting your screenshots Martin, I signed up for more information at https://one.google.com which worked.