the hidden trick to double your space without removing anything

Since Google decided to include Google Photos in the free 15GB limit, managing your storage space has become a real headache for many of us.

If you’re the type of person who shoots shots with your smartphone (like me), you’ve probably already received the fateful alert informing you that your storage is almost full. But before you give in to the temptation to delete your precious memories or pull out your credit card to buy more storage, let me show you a trick that could very well change the game.

A hidden parameter

What’s fascinating about this trick is that it takes advantage of a hidden setting in Google Photos. So hidden, in fact, that it’s only accessible from the desktop version. Yes, you read that right: to activate it, you’ll have to put down your smartphone for a few minutes and sit down in front of a good old PC.

The idea behind this option is simple but ingenious: instead of systematically storing your photos and videos in the highest possible quality (which eats up your space), Google Photos will compress them slightly.

Result? Files that require less storage, but whose quality remains largely sufficient for daily use.

Quality vs Quantity

Let’s talk numbers: With this setting, your photos will be resized to a maximum of 16 megapixels, and your videos will be output in 1080p. For the vast majority of us, this is more than enough.

Unless you plan on printing giant posters or projecting your videos on a movie screen, you probably won’t notice the difference.

The best part? This compression applies not only to your future uploads, but also to all files you have already stored since June 1, 2021.

Now that you’re convinced, here’s how to do it:

1. Go to the Google Photos website from a computer.
2. Sign in to your Google account.
3. In the side menu, click on “Manage storage space”.
4. Look for the “Reclaim storage space” section and click “Learn more”.
5. Accept the warning and click “Compress available photos and videos”.

And there you have it! Google Photos will get to work optimizing your storage. The time it takes will depend on the amount of data you have to process, but you should quickly see the difference.

The Limits of Magic

Of course, like any good tip, this one has its limits. First, it only applies to files uploaded after June 1, 2021. Second, some file formats, like portrait mode photos on Android, can’t be compressed. Finally, if you’re a professional photographer or a demanding videographer, you might find the loss of quality too great.

But let’s be honest: For most of us who use Google Photos to store our vacation memories, Sunday selfies, and funny cat videos, this is a more than reasonable tradeoff. You could easily double your storage capacity without really sacrificing the quality of your memories.

This trick raises an interesting question: why doesn’t Google make this option more prominent? One might think it’s to push users toward paid offers. But it could also be a sign that the tech giant is working on even more advanced compression solutions.

With the advances in artificial intelligence, we can imagine algorithms capable of compressing our photos and videos even more efficiently, preserving important details while drastically reducing file sizes. Google has already announced the use of AI to improve the “Memories” feature of Google Photos.