We explain the difference between Google Photos and Google Drive with table. Google is a multinational company specializing in Internet-related products and services that started in the United States. It is one of the largest technology companies in the world. Google has various applications like G-mail, Google Docs, Google Photos, Google Drive, etc. that have different functions.
Google Photos and Googles Drive are two applications that work as file storage applications. You can view your files online and offline. Googles Photos automatically syncs all the images on your phone with the app, but you have to manually add files to Google Drive.
What is Google Photos?
Store photos up to 16 megapixels and videos at 1080p resolution. The app was free until now, but it was recently announced that Google Photos will become a paid service.
Google Photos can automatically recognize faces, analyze photos, and sort them into folders. The app will no longer be a free version on June 1, 2021. The paid version will give users more storage space and the ability to upload photos in higher resolutions.
While Google Photos helps save images, it does not offer an option to capture an image with the camera or do advanced editing. If your main goal is to store images and videos, Google Photos is a better option than Google Drive.
What is Google Drive?
Google Drive is a file synchronization and storage service developed by Google on April 24, 2012. You can store 15GB worth of data for free. Users can change the privacy settings of individual files and can choose who can and who cannot view, edit or share them. Google Drive can open Excel sheets, documents, photos, and PowerPoint presentations.
Google Drive has 800 million users worldwide who store around 2 trillion files in the application. Google also offers 30GB of storage space for those who have purchased the Google Workspace or G Suite starter pack. With pleasure for all users, Google Drive is still free.
Google Drive also offers an option to edit files in addition to saving and storing them.
Difference
The difference is that while Google Photos only saves images and videos, Google Drive also saves other types of files such as PDF, EPUB, ZIP, etc.
Comparison table
| Comparison parameters | Google photos | Google drives |
| March | Google Photos is a photo gallery that can save photos, videos, and gifs, which can be saved to online cloud storage. | Google Drive is a backup and storage application for various files. For example PDF, ZIP, videos, photos, etc. |
| User interface | The app looks like any other gallery app. When the application opens, you are greeted with various photos and videos on your phone. | Google Drive is similar to any file management application. When the app opens, it shows various files present on the device. |
| Organization | Photos are organized in private folders and cannot be moved to other folders. | Files can be saved in folders and can be moved to other folders. |
| Storage space | Google Photos provides unlimited storage space for photos. | Google Drive provides 15 GB of storage space for saving files and the user can purchase more space later. |
| Photo editing | Photos can be cropped, rotated, and collaged. | Photos cannot be edited on Google Drive. |
| Photo scanning | Google Photos does not allow the scanning of photos from the application itself and requires the download of an additional application. | Google Drive can scan photos, files, and documents. |
| Google Lens | Google Photos has a feature called Google Lens that uses artificial intelligence to identify the elements in a photo. | Google Drive does not have Google Lens. |
| Sharing | Google Photos can share your content with only one person at a time. | Google Drive can share your content with multiple people at the same time. |
Main differences
- Googles Photos works as a gallery and only saves photos and videos, while Googles Drive acts as a file manager and saves PDF files, ZIP files, photos, videos, etc.
- Photos cannot be moved from one folder to another in Google Photos, but Googles Drive allows file organization according to your requirements.
- Googles Drive only offers 15GB of cloud storage space, but Googles Photos provides unlimited cloud storage space (with some limitations).
- Googles Drive allows you to edit files but you cannot edit photos or videos. Google Photos, on the other hand, provides the service.
- Googles Photos does not have the function to scan photos or documents while Google Drive does.
- Googles Lens also comes with Google Photos, but not with Google Drive. Helps identify aspects of a photograph.
- While Google Drive allows sharing with multiple people at the same time, Google Photos does not.
Final Thought
Google is the leading company in the Internet industry. It has appeared with Googles (the search engine), Google Scholar, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Slides, etc. Googles Drive and Google Photos are two of those important applications that are used the most.
When you log into different devices with your Googles Drives account, you can access all your files saved in it. Google Photos can do the same too, but only if the photos and videos are backed up to cloud storage.
The biggest problem when using Googles Photos arises when organizing your photos in folders. Photos cannot be moved from one folder to another. Googles Drive is much easier in terms of organization and does the job efficiently.
Despite the drawbacks, Googles Photos and Googles Drives are excellent applications and the quality is reflected in the number of users. Both services have millions of users around the world, which makes them very popular. Googless maintains its standards when making these applications.
