X

Google One storage starts offering some features for free

Automatic phone backup and a new storage manager tool are now available to all Google account holders.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
Expertise I have more than 30 years' experience in journalism in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Steven Musil
google-logo-6

Google is offering some cloud storage features to all Google account holders for free.

Angela Lang/CNET

Google announced Wednesday that it will, for the first time, offer free access to some features of its Google One cloud storage, including automatic phone backup for Android and iOS users – even if they don't have a Google One account. A new storage manager tool will also be available to Google users on both mobile operating systems , as well as on the web.

Automatic phone backup, which Google introduced last year, lets you save texts, photos and videos with the push of a button on a new Google One app. The feature taps the 15 gigabytes of storage that comes with Google accounts, so if you lose, damage or change your phone, all your information will be safely backed up in the cloud.  

Another feature being offered for free is a new storage manager tool that lets users of the app see and clean up their files across Gmail, Drive and Photos. The feature helps users stay within their storage limits by deciding which files are important enough to keep and which are no longer necessary. Users can also purchase additional storage space, Google said.

The features will begin rolling out to Android users through the Google Play store on Wednesday, while the iOS app is expected to be available in the near future.

Google One, which launched in 2018, offers paid storage options ranging from $1.99 for 100 gigabytes to $149.99 for 30 terabytes.

See also: 7 hidden Android features that will blow your mind. Here's how to use them

Watch this: Android 11: What's new in the public beta