Android backups will start counting against the google account storage

In the past few weeks there have been a few updates from Google on the storage reduction. They mentioned that all the google accounts without a phone number link might be reduced to 5 GB. Somewhere they think that 15 GB is too much for free storage. Many people who used to offer higher storage have already reduced the free storage. I think when they start they all start with a higher storage limit but gradually when more users jump in the storage reduces.

Source - Gemini

Today I read this news that the phone related backups will also start counting against the google drive storage. I think it is a fair point because why should it be otherwise. It should have always been a part of the google account storage only. People who have multiple devices might have to worry a little about this. But it will be difficult only when the news is coming out, after that we will all get used to it.

I think having our own storage system is the best setup to have. The reason is because we cannot be sure about all these cloud subscriptions. Even if we pay money to store our data in the cloud, we cannot be sure that these data storage providers will have our data safe there. Additionally privacy is one thing that we cannot be sure about.

The subscription cost is getting increased for all these services and one best thing would be to buy hardware and self host whatever we want. I have been exploring self hosting for a while now. I don't have enough time to complete my self hosting explorations. Hopefully I will be able to do it at least as a backup plan as I'm also in a subscription right now. Hardware cost is also sky rocketing these days because of the AI demand and many companies are looking for options to reduce their operational cost. In the case of Android, they are pushing a major update that will require more storage space for backups compared to the past.

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