- Google is changing up its cloud storage options and upgrading all consumers paying for Google Drive storage to a new service called Google One in the next few months.
- The new service is going to come with expert assistance, user benefits, family plan options, and slightly different rates from its current Google Drive plans.
- Corporate accounts won't be affected, but Google said it's working towards making Google One available to users taking advantage of the 15GB of free space.
Google's paid cloud storage service is getting a big makeover.
On Monday, Google took the wraps off of Google One, a new version of its storage service for paying users that includes new pricing plans, the option to share plans with multiple family members - and built-in access to Google's online customer support "experts."
Google says this isn't a rebrand of its popular Google Drive storage platform, which will for the time being continue to exist as a free service for people who need up to 15GB of online storage. Google One is a more comprehensive service for paying users that provides new options for 100GB to 300TB of storage. There's a new 200 GB plan for $2.99 a month, and the price of the 2TB plan has been reduced to $9.99 a month instead of $19.99.
A new family storage option gives users the ability to include up to four additional people, each of who would have their own personal space, all paid for under one bill.
And Google is throwing in some other perks to convince users that it's worth upgrading to the paid version of its storage service, including "one-tap access to experts" for assistance with Google products, as well as benefits like hotel deals, Google Play credits, and others that it plans to add over time.
What do experts have to do with storage? "People who use a lot of storage tend to use a lot of other Google products, too. So with Google One you get one-tap access to experts for help with our consumer products and services." Google said in the post.
"In the next few months, all paid consumer Google Drive storage plans will be upgraded to Google One," the company said.
Paying consumers will get an email when their Drive has been upgraded to Google One, at which point the blog post says they'll continue to use Drive to store files in the same way. In this sense, Google could continue to add to services to Google One, making it more of an all-encompassing subscription plan versus just a space for storage.
Changes won't affect business customers with G Suite accounts, but Google says it's working towards making Google One available for non-paying consumers who currently only depend on the free 15 GB option.
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