I’ve long relied on Google Photos to manage my ever-growing library of digital memories. But recently, I’ve been considering a switch to Microsoft’s OneDrive, given the generous storage available for Microsoft 365 subscribers and its integration with Windows.
Photos-first Mobile Experience
The first impression of any photo service is on your smartphone. Google Photos offers a clean, intuitive user experience that prioritizes your photos and videos.
For a long time, OneDrive was considered a more general-purpose cloud storage service. It only offered a Photos tab, where your photos were presented in a grid—with no intelligent grouping and no additional features to engage with them. This made it a bit inferior to Google Photos, especially since Google Photos is a standalone app, and there’s a separate Google Drive app for general-purpose storage needs.)
However, a recent refresh of the OneDrive app brought a dedicated Photos section, allowing you to use it as a dedicated photos app. At first glance, it mimics a more photo-centric app like Google Photos or the gallery app you might find pre-installed on your smartphone.
The app refresh now offers a chronological timeline of your media, making it easy to scroll through and find specific moments. And that’s exactly what prompted me to try it out as a Google Photos replacement.
My goal was simple: fully transition my mobile photo management from Google Photos to OneDrive on my Google Pixel 9 Pro and see if it could match, or even surpass, the experience I was used to. This wasn’t just about storage, though. It was about how well each service integrated into my daily life as a primary tool for capturing, organizing, editing, and sharing my photos.
Google Photos and OneDrive seamlessly integrate with your phone’s camera and storage. Once set up, taking a photo automatically backs it up to your Google or Microsoft Account, creating a somewhat unified experience. You can access all your photos, whether taken on your phone or added from other devices, within the same app as well as on the Web.
OneDrive takes it a step further, however, especially if you have a Windows PC. Since OneDrive is integrated into Windows, you can browse your OneDrive photos as well as copy, move, or delete them–and upload photos from other sources–right from File Explorer on Windows.
AI-powered Search and Curation
Apart from a free scrolling timeline of our photos and videos, a photo app should surface our memories intuitively. One of the areas where Google Photos truly shines is its AI-powered search and curation features.
Google’s advanced machine learning algorithms can analyze your photos and identify people, places, objects, and even abstract concepts. For example, you can search for “beach” in Google Photos, and it will accurately surface all your beach photos, even if you never tagged them as such.
You can search for specific people, even if you haven’t labeled them, thanks to facial recognition. Searching for things like “birthday cake” or “sunset” will net you relevant results. This powerful search functionality makes it incredibly easy to find the exact photo you’re looking for, even in a massive library.
OneDrive does offer search capabilities, but they are significantly more limited. This means you need to rely heavily on manual tagging and organization if you want to create a structured library.
Another key difference is the emphasis on smart albums, which are automatically created based on people and places. Both OneDrive and Google Photos offer automatic curation, highlighting special moments you might have forgotten. However, Google Photos can automatically create collages and animations from your photos and videos. This is a feature OneDrive is still missing.
Google Photos’ AI-powered search makes it far easier to interact with your photo library. OneDrive’s search functionality is basic in comparison, as it lacks any form of intelligent curation.
Photo Editing Capabilities
Both Google Photos and OneDrive offer built-in photo editing tools, but their capabilities and ease of use differ significantly. If you use a Pixel smartphone, Google Photos offers additional AI-powered features to edit and manipulate your photos and videos.
Google provides a comprehensive suite of editing options that you can utilize whether you’re a casual user or someone looking for more advanced controls. You can easily adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, and other basic parameters. There are also a variety of filters, cropping tools, and even more advanced features like selective editing and color pop.
The app also offers intelligent suggestions, automatically enhancing photos with a single tap. Some of Google’s photo editing features are only available for Google One subscribers, mind you.
OneDrive’s photo editing capabilities are basic in comparison. You can crop, rotate, and adjust basic parameters, but that’s about it. There are no filters, no advanced editing tools, and no AI-powered features like object removal.
For basic adjustments, OneDrive will suffice. However, if you want to do anything beyond simple cropping and brightness adjustments, you’ll need to use a separate photo editing app. Google, on the other hand, provides a surprisingly powerful and user-friendly editing experience directly in the Photos app.
Storage and Sharing Features
I started using Google Photos when I got the first-generation Pixel. At the time, Google offered unlimited free storage for photos. All photos and videos count towards your Google account storage, which is shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. Google offers 15GB of free storage, and you can purchase additional storage through Google One plans.
OneDrive, part of Microsoft 365, offers a slightly different approach. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365, you get 1TB of OneDrive storage. This is on par with Google One plans, but it also gets you access to Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, and more. Without subscribing, OneDrive only offers 5GB of storage.
In terms of sharing, both platforms allow you to directly share photos and albums with others. Google makes it particularly easy to share with other Google users, and it offers collaborative albums where multiple people can contribute photos.
Honestly, choosing between Google Photos and OneDrive mostly depends on whether you’re already subscribed to Microsoft 365. If you need a lot of storage space and are already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, OneDrive’s 1TB offering is compelling. However, Google’s various Google One plans also offer a wealth of storage, and the higher 15GB free storage limit on Google accounts may work better for those who don’t want to subscribe to a paid plan.
After weeks of using OneDrive as my primary photo app on my phone, I have to say that it’s a capable cloud storage solution. However, it doesn’t quite measure up to Google Photos as a comprehensive mobile photo management tool. Google Photos excels in areas that matter most to mobile users. It’s an intuitive photos-first experience with powerful editing capabilities and strong AI-powered curation features.
OneDrive feels more like a traditional file storage service with some photo viewing capabilities added on. Its interface is less intuitive, its search functionality is limited, and its editing tools are basic.
While it offers ample storage space, especially for Microsoft 365 subscribers like me, it lacks the polish and intelligence that make Google Photos so enticing.
If you don’t want to pay for Google One, an affordable alternative is to use both. You can use Google Photos as your primary app for photos and then offload your older photos to OneDrive once you reach the 15GB storage mark. It’s not the best approach, but it gives you the best of both worlds.
