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Google has been busy, busy, busy lately revamping a number of their consumer products. From a much-needed overhaul of Gmail to bringing more Material Design to the Drive storage platform.
As the new look for Drive begins to trickle down to users, the Company has now announced new pricing plans for the cloud storage and some really cool new features to come along with it.
Google One
No, Google isn’t rebranding Drive but those of you who pay for extra storage, your plans will now be managed via the Google One platform.
So, what’s new in Google One?
Pricing
For most, Drive’s new pricing structure will be a reason to jump for joy. If the 15GB of free storage just doesn’t cut it for you, pricing for the 100GB plan will remain the same at $1.99/month. However, if you still need a little more space, a new 200GB plan will be available for just $1.00 more a month.
Moving on up the ladder, users currently on the 1TB plan will automatically be upgraded to 2TB in coming months but the upgrade will be at no extra charge. That’s right. 2TB of Drive storage for only $9.99/month. Not too shabby. Pricing for plans over 2TB will remain the same but fret not, you will still get some new benefits for being a Drive customer.
Live Support
The details on this one are still a bit scant but according to The Keyword:
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. Plus, you’ll gain access to extras from other Google products, like credits on Google Play or deals on select hotels found in Google Search. And we’ll be adding more benefits over time.
Google does offer live support for a number of their consumer products like the Pixel phone and Home products but we’ll have to wait and see to which other products the new Google One support extends. Many support channels for Google products lead you down a path to the Google Product Forums which are staffed for the most part with volunteer experts. The forum experts are awesome and extremely knowledgeable but I would hope, being a paid platform, that the new Drive support will be 1-on-1 with Google.
Sharing
The new Family Share feature for Drive was a pleasant surprise in the Google One announcement. While I’ve never had a need for such a feature, I’m sure there are many paying Drive customers who have asked for the feature.
One of the most common requests we’ve received is for storage plans to be sharable within a family. With Google One, you can add up to five family members to your plan and simplify storage under one bill. Everyone gets their own private storage space as well as the additional benefits of Google One.
The Keyword
It seems very similar to Team Drive for Enterprise customers except each user gets their own private storage instead of one, community space. Google hasn’t shared what the pricing structure will be for shared plans but we’ll be keeping an eye out for updates.
Speaking of updates. Google One now has an official landing page where you can sign up to receive news and updates about the new plans including when they’re available in your area. No solid dates have been announced but Google states the new features will be rolling out in stages over the coming months. Check out the Google One page for yourself at the link below.
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Source: The Keyword
