I switched to Google Photos after using iCloud for 5 years and I'm never going back

• If your iCloud is full and your iPhone is out of storage, you should consider downloading Google Photos.
• Google Photos gives iPhone and Android users free unlimited backup of compressed photos and videos.
• Google Photos also has helpful features like search and automatic album creation.
• Business Insider's A.C. Fowler tried out Google Photos to see if he could free up space on his 16 GB iPhone 6s.

A.C.: I've been an iPhone user for five years, I have an iPhone 6s with only 16 gigabytes of storage, and iCloud is driving me nuts because I'm at a point where I literally can't take any more photos or videos.

The only thing I really know about my iCloud is that it's full. It tells me that I haven't backed up my phone in over a year, so it's been a long time. Yeah, it's constantly a balance of taking an app away so that I can download a new one. Venmo, especially. Every single time I download it, I do a transaction and then I delete it immediately, because that's the only amount of space I have left. Yeah, I think there's probably three things that take up my phone the most. Just a ton of text messages, pictures, and yeah, there's some videos on there. I find it hard to keep videos because I just literally have no space whatsoever left. I've reached my limit.

And then it drives me nuts too, cause I can't delete certain other apps that come on an iPhone, that I never use like the Health app. I'm never gonna use that in my life. The only thing I have are the very basics. I mean, I guess I could delete IMDb, but I don't want to. I just know there is a better way, and I'm always getting these messages about how I haven't backed up my phone, or how I can't take a picture right now. And it's the worst when you're in the moment, like at a concert, or trying to do something, and just trying to capture a moment that's happening and then you take one picture then you go to take a second one and there's no more storage. Oh yeah, I get multiple notifications every single day about how I haven't backed up my phone.

Literally just one second ago someone asked me to take a video, and so I had a person film it and then they tried to AirDrop it to me, but I couldn't accept the AirDrop. I just had no more space to accept it. Those things happen all the time to me. And it's really embarrassing.

And one of the notifications is like do you want to buy more iCloud storage space, and I just don't like the idea of doing that. Cause I don't want to pay in perpetuity for iCloud space. Yes, to the people who say that I just need to get more storage, I hear you and I don't disagree, but I just think that there should be a better way for people who don't have that much storage or, you know, can't afford more storage.

I mean, I've heard of Google Photos from people who have Google phones, and it was only, I think last week, that I heard that it was available on iOS. I just had no idea. So I feel like this could change my life.

So I've been using Google Photos for about a week now, and it's been great! The positives were immediate, almost. I checked my settings and I had suddenly 1.79 gigabytes of space, so almost 2 gigs that I didn't have before. So, since switching over to Google Photos I've re-downloaded a ton of apps. I have Venmo on my phone now which I don't have to ever delete, Uber, I don't have to delete that anymore, I re-downloaded Slack, I downloaded that really cool Huji app, I re-downloaded Twitter, so I get to say all my random thoughts now. I can take multiple selfies at once and then choose the one I want. A lot of frivolous things, I can now do once again.

I was hanging out with friends on Thursday night, and I was like, "I will download Seamless, and I will buy the food for everyone." So I felt very proud of that moment. I literally haven't updated any of my apps for at least six months. So the fact that I had space now, I was able to update my apps. I did not know you could do so many things on Instagram that I didn't know about!

I haven't had a single message telling me that my storage is about to run out this entire week. So that's been great. The search is actually pretty cool. So I searched, "dog" and all my pictures from the Costa Rican dog park pulled up. And then I typed in - so then I gave it a harder test and typed in, "costume" and all of my Halloween costumes popped up, which was pretty impressive.

I don't think I miss anything from iCloud. It didn't help me do anything or accomplish any goals, it just really annoyed me because I was always running out of space. So no, I don't miss iCloud even a little bit. And yeah, these are just keepsakes like nice memories, so I don't really mind the downgraded quality especially if I don't have to pay for it. It's all good in my book.

If any iPhone user is in a predicament like me where they have to keep on deleting things just to make it all work, this is an amazing option because it'll just free up space for you. I feel I could keep this current phone which I will admit is very old already because it only has 16 gigs. But it makes me feel like I don't have to update my phone, which is great. I mean, even if you aren't sure about if you should switch to Google Photos or you're worried about it, I would at least check it out. Because for me the benefits are huge.

So imagine the money you would save just by buying - or no, imagine the money you'll save just by downloading a free app. It's huge!