Google+ Photos to Be Shutdown on August 1 in Favour of Google Photos

Google has announced that it is shutting down the Google+ Photos service on August 1 in favour of recently launched Google Photos. The company revealed that Google+ Photos shutdown will begin with Android initially, followed by Web and iOS.

Announcing the news, Google in a Google+ post titled 'Goodbye Google+ Photos, hello +Google Photos' said, "In an effort to ensure everyone has the best photos experience we can deliver, on August 1st we'll start to shut down Google+ Photos - initially on Android, and soon thereafter on the Web and iOS."

(Also see: Google Photos With Free, Unlimited Storage: 10 Things You Need to Know)

The company added that "sometime after August 1, the Google+ Photos app will stop working"; though clarified that users can still access the stores photos and videos using the new Google Photos service, as long as they download and start using the new app before the deadline.

Google recommends users install the Google Photos app on Android and make a switch from Google+ Photos. "If you don't update to the new Google Photos, Google+ Photos on Android will soon stop working, but your photos and videos will still remain safely stored and available via photos.google.com or for export using Google Takeout," notes Google.

To recall, Google at its annual developers' conference unveiled its standalone service Google Photos that lets users store photos and videos for free. The service was made available for Android, iOS and the Web.

Once Google Photos is installed on the device (Android or iOS), photos and videos will automatically be uploaded and stored on to the cloud. Photos and videos are stored in the cloud at full resolution, with limits on maximum quality - 16-megapixel for photos and 1080p for videos. If you want to store higher resolution images or videos, you can use your Google account storage that offers 15GB of free space shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ photos.