Google Drive vs. Google Photos: What is the difference?

Google Drive and Google Photos are two apps that are interchangeably used to upload and share photos.

But that’s not the only thing they do, right?

Both of them have some unique features that make them completely different.

Google Drive is a storage system where you can upload more than just photos and videos, like PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, Google sites, Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple files.

Google Photos saves and backups photos and videos from your phone. You can create a photo library or do quick searches for the images. It also offers some photo editing features that aren’t available on Google Drive.

Every Google user is given 15 GB of free storage space, shared between Gmail, Drive, Photos, etc.

Previously, images uploaded to Google Photos weren’t counted towards your 15 GB of storage. Last year, Google changed the storage policy by saying that high-quality photos in Google Photos will be counted against the storage.

It’s confusing for many people about what to choose: Google Drive vs. Google Photos.

Table of Contents

What should you choose between Google Drive and Google Photos?

Let’s dive in to understand how Google Drive differs from Google Photos and what you should choose between them.

Google Drive: A vault for all of your files, including photos and videos

Google Drive is an encrypted storage option to store, manage, and share files on any mobile, tablet, or computer. It provides a cloud storage facility to save any number of files and folders. Google Drive allows users to upload or create Docs, Sheets, Maps, Slides, Drawings, and other documents.

Unlike Google Photos, it does not offer photo editing features like filters, image cropping, or rotation. You can use a third-party tool to make changes to the original photo. Google Drive is an excellent option for storing files beyond pictures and images.

Also read: Google sheets 101: The beginner’s guide in 2022

Features of Google Drive

Google Drive lets you integrate various first-party and third-party external web applications from the Google Workspace Marketplace. Users can perform additional functions using these apps. Just go to “My Drive”> “More”> “Connect more apps” to install.

Google Drive can sort files by item name, date modified, file type, ownership, etc. You can also make queries in natural languages, like “photos of a trip from May.”

You can work on Google Drive even if you are offline or don’t have an internet connection. Just turn on the “ready to offline” mode at the top right corner of your profile.

Google Drive lets you use access control to modify with who you are sharing your files or photos.

You can backup your entire smartphone data directly with a single tap on Google Drive.

Also read: How to use google forms in 2022

Google Photos: Built for your photo collection

Google Photos is specifically built to store and share photos and videos. One can access media for any device, be it a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Install the Google Photo app on your device, and any photo you take will be uploaded directly to the cloud. Images are sorted by date, albums, and meaning to let users easily access them.

Google Photos offers basic photo editing features like adjusting levels, rotating, applying filters, cropping, or rotating your photos.

Google Photos solves a big problem in photo organization. It’s easy to upload photos and browse them through an AI-driven search. You can also easily share photos with other users without any third-party application.

For instance, you can type anything, and Google Photos uses artificial intelligence to search for photos with those elements.

Users can search for images based on three criteria: people, places, and things. You can search for the name of a person, place, or object, and Google Photos will bring up photos matching your input.

Features of Google Photos

Google Photos uses an algorithm to scan the faces in the photos and put them together under the “People” category.

It uses geotagging as a feature to determine locations in the photograph. For example, if you take photos of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and upload them to Google Photos, it will recognize the location.

You can share Google photos directly on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.

Google Photos can be shared directly to Facebook, Google+, or Twitter, and they can be shared in Express Quality. High quality and Express quality are compressed photos and videos, but you will not see a very vast difference. They will still look pretty decent.

Users can combine multiple images to get an ultimate panoramic photo.

You can also backup photos automatically from third-party apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and other similar Android apps.

Google Drive features are not in Google Photos

In this section of Google Drive vs. Google Photos, we will see features that Google Drive has but not Google Photos.

Uploading files

Google Drive supports various file types, like-

Many image files
Video file formats
ZIP and some other file types
Google Forms
Audio file formats
PDF, Office, and Google Docs files

This is not the case with Google Photos; it only supports image and video files.

PC Backup Options

Google Photos doesn’t support PC backup. You can easily accomplish this in Google Drive by downloading the Google Drive Desktop for Windows and syncing your data from the computers. You will find a section called “computers.” Click on it to sync all folders and files from the computer.

Google Photo features are not on Google Drive

There are also plenty of features that Google Photos and Google Drive don’t have. In this section of Google Photos vs. Google Drive, we have covered those.

Powerful search

Google Photos offers excellent search capabilities. The artificial intelligence used to scan photos and show results matching the search input is exceptional.

With Google Photos, you can search for objects, scenes, colors, people’s faces, locations, and more. For instance, if you search for trees, Google Photos will bring up photos of trees.

Faces

Not only does Google Photos let you find the photos you are looking for, but it also creates a photo collection of people’s faces. The AI used scanned faces and compiled them into a folder. This gives users a ready-made photo album without having to sort through hundreds of photos.

Photo editor

Another thing that you won’t find in Google Drive is photo and video editing features. Google Photos lets you crop, auto-enhance, rotate, markup, and add filters to your photos. In Google Drive, you can only store and share photos, not change their appearance unless you use any third-party tools.

What to choose? Google Drive vs. Google Photos

Let’s address the elephant in the room.

What should you choose between Google Drive and Google Photos?

Google Drive creates an ecosystem around Google services to store, manage, and share files and folders. It can store photos and videos but can do nothing with those photos.

On the other hand, Google Photos is a digital photo management software where you can store, edit, and share photos and videos. Its advanced AI system can let you create a timeline of images based on objects, scenes, colors, people’s faces, location, and more.

The answer to this comes down to how you use these Google apps. Google Drive works fine if you only want to use it for sharing files and folders.

But, if you want to create a photo collection and need some basic photo-editing features, Google Photos is your best option.

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Google Drive vs. Google Photos: What is the difference?

What should you choose between Google Drive and Google Photos?

Google Drive: A vault for all of your files, including photos and videos

Features of Google Drive

Google Photos: Built for your photo collection

Features of Google Photos

Google Drive features are not in Google Photos

Uploading files

PC Backup Options

Google Photo features are not on Google Drive

Powerful search

Faces

Photo editor

What to choose? Google Drive vs. Google Photos

Graphy, the online course creation, and selling platform

Top creators use Graphy to sell courses and memberships

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