Google continues to complicate its Google One features and it is becoming obsolete. Google One was supposed to make things simpler.
It was intended to be a neat subscription that replaced the mix of Drive storage and Photos backup and came with some added perks.
But Google One lately feels more like a subscription game where features appear and disappear faster than you can use them. Just look at the recent news that Google will be removing its VPN service later this year.
Get to know Google One
It was intended to optimize the company’s various storage plans.
Google One was announced in 2018 and launched that same year. The idea behind the service was to simplify Google’s various cloud storage plans. It consolidated storage into Drive, expanded the benefits of Google Photo, and added some perks like live support for subscribers. The focus was on clarity and value for the user.
But Google didn’t include YouTube Premium (and YouTube Music) with your subscription. This was a missed opportunity and left many users scratching their heads. Why didn’t Google’s all-in-one package include the company’s most successful products?
Things got even more confusing with the introduction of specific features like “premium video calling” and “dark web monitoring.” These felt less like genuine benefits and more like Google trying to justify its prices. Nobody wanted these random features.
Google VPN will disappear just like that
Another useful Google product for the cemetery
Google added VPN protection to the Google One subscription in 2023. This was a move made to counter the Apple One subscription, which came with Apple‘s version of a built-in VPN. The Google VPN was somewhat useful if you used it. Let’s be clear here: Google’s VPN was not a full VPN like you’d get from other dedicated companies. It had no no-logging policy, lacked strong encryption protocols, and did not have a kill switch feature. Plus, it was Google and we all know how the company handles our data.
Google VPN will cease to exist before the end of the year. Google announced the death of the VPN for Google One subscribers less than a year after introducing it, effectively raising our Google One prices by removing a feature since we’re losing a benefit without the price reflecting it.
magic eraser confusion
This is a try-before-you-buy trick, not a feature
Magic Eraser is an effective tool to erase unwanted elements from your photos. Google announced the feature in 2023 and made it appear that all Google One subscribers would have access to the tool. Unfortunately, we are talking about Google.
The company recently announced that Magic Eraser will be limited, even for Google One subscribers. It’s now a “try it before you buy” situation, where you’re limited to ten editions per month.
You can unlock the full power of Magic Eraser with an expensive 2TB subscription to Google One.
That’s not customer-friendly, but it surely aligns with how Google loves to incentivize this expensive plan instead of offering more options among a tiny few. 200 GB and a whopping 2 TB.
The 2TB level
It’s like the 200 GB level but with AI
The 2 terabyte tier of Google One comes with everything the lower tiers include, but Google is offering unlimited use of Magic Eraser and Google Gemini Advanced to sweeten the deal.
But it is expensive. You’re looking at almost $30 per month once you factor in taxes.
If you are an avid AI user and paying for ChatGPT 4, then it might be worth the upgrade.
After all, you get almost unlimited storage. But for us normal people who don’t see AI as much more than a gimmick, well, nothing justifies this price increase.
Stop Passing Off Machine Learning Tricks as Real AI Improvements
The parade of tricks continues
Google One is all show and no substance
Google One doesn’t seem like a serious subscription unless you pay for the highest tiers. Sure, there are some perks included, but they feel more like gimmicks. Make Premium video calls. It sounds fancy, but do you need some cartoon video effects and noise cancellation for a quick chat with Grandma?
Dark web monitoring sounds dramatic in theory, but does it protect you? The most it does is show you which passwords have been compromised, something the best password managers have been doing for years. And don’t even get me started on how useless “enhanced appointment scheduling” really is. I can enter my appointments into my calendar for free.
Serious competition with Apple
Apple One embarrasses Google One
Take a look next to Apple One and cry. Here’s a subscription service done right. Apple includes a lot of tempting services in one perfect package. We’re talking iCloud storage, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, a VPN, and a custom email domain. If you choose the top tier, with 2TB of storage, you also get Apple Fitness and Apple News+.
There are no tricks here. Only really useful services. If Google doesn’t get to work, Apple will become more and more tempting. We die-hard Android users just want something similar from Google.
What Google One SHOULD be like
Just add these things and make users happy for once.
Google, if you’re listening, we understand that subscriptions are extremely lucrative. But you’re doing it wrong. If you add and remove features all the time, you muddy the waters and ruin your value proposition. We don’t want tricks.
Is this what we want:
Storage: Drive, Gmail, and Photos share storage; we understand. And we are happy with what Google One offers in this regard.
YouTube Premium: We should get YouTube Premium as part of our Google One subscription. Heck, we’d be willing to pay more for Google One if it came with this.
YouTube Music: The same goes for YouTube Music. Give us everything for a combined price, please.
Gemini: You have a real opportunity to be different from everyone else here. Gemini Advanced as part of Google One is good value for money.
Reality check
We’re stuck in the Google ecosystem for now, but that doesn’t mean Google has carte blanche to exploit our loyalty. Give us clear reasons to pay our hard-earned money for Google One and we’ll stay. Focus on the good features, not the gimmicks, or you risk driving even your most dedicated users to greener pastures.
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