Joe Maring / Android Authority
Google One started off with a simple proposition: when you ran out of Drive storage, you rented more for a flat monthly fee. Then, over time, Google added some premium Google Photos features to One plans, giving you another incentive to upgrade. Then came the extra perks: VPN, advanced Workspace features, Google Store benefits, occasional freebies, and whatnot. Now, in the world of LLMs and Gemini, there are AI plans too; three of them, to be precise.
Having multiple choices sure gives you the power to choose, but it can also prove to be a mighty devil that does nothing but confuse the hell out of you. That’s the current state of Google One plans right now — and guess what? Google is making it worse still.
Do you think Google One’s subscription plans with AI are worth it? 36 votes Yes, AI features justify the cost 14 % No, too confusing and overpriced 78 % Only for power users who need extra storage 6 % My data lives in a pile of portable drives 3 %
It was never the One
Joe Maring / Android Authority
Despite being a fan favorite — and probably a must for Android users — Google One has been far from perfect even before AI was added to the mix. The biggest and most common complaint (that even I have) is the non-existent slab between 200GB and 2TB. When I hit the 200GB ceiling, I don’t suddenly require 10x the space; I could probably do with 500GB of storage (rings a bell?), which would be much more reasonable and even good enough for quite a few years. But nope, Google wants to be greedy.
And that’s just scratching the surface. Its family-sharing features need to be a lot more granular, like customized Drive storage allocation so your kids don’t hog all the space by dumping their media and game files, leaving none for your own photos.
I would kill for this Google One feature — a custom email address for personal use instead of getting pushed toward Workspace.
Compared to iCloud+, Google One lacks tons of features like Hide My Email, which gets you an email alias for added privacy (Gmail has one, but it’s more of a desktop tool), or the thing I would kill for: a custom email address for personal use instead of getting pushed toward Workspace. Instead of adding these features, Google is often found dropping existing ones, like last year’s VPN support.
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