All users of the photo platform Google Photos can use two different methods to upload their pictures and videos, which differ in terms of quality and storage space used. In the past year, the thumbscrews on storage space have been tightened, and now a feature is finally rolling out that gives users a little more insight into the quality of their uploaded content.
By default, Google uploads photos as “High Quality” images and videos, which means the media will be scaled down by the algorithms as needed, taking up less storage space. If you don’t want that, you have to switch to “Original Quality”, which then requires more storage space. This selection can be changed at any time, but of course, only applies to all media uploaded in the future.
Until now, there was no direct way to find out the quality status of an image or video. One could perhaps manage with the resolution or via the download and find out in which quality it was uploaded – but that is unreliable and also cumbersome. The Google Photos developers have now noticed this and are rolling out new information for the detailed view in the browser.
There you can now see the quality of the photo that was uploaded. Simply open the detailed information on the desired image and look further down. There should be a new entry there shortly or maybe already, which provides information about the quality.
This is not really easily accessible and anything but clear. But at least this information can finally be called up, which previously could not be obtained at all as a user of the Android app or on the web. It will probably also be available for the Android app in the near future and will be included in the corresponding listing of the details of an uploaded photo.
On Android, one could even offer the possibility to change this quality. Theoretically, it can be made smaller at any time, but of course, it cannot be restored to its original quality. However, if the original image is still stored on the smartphone, this would also be possible. While I don’t see such a feature on the horizon, it would certainly be an interesting improvement. Because many users will probably never look at this upload setting again after the initial setup.
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