Ente wants to take on Google Photos with its privacy-first photo storage service

Despite Google’s intentions for its default image viewing and editing app for Android, the Photos app has, over the years, become one of the most popular photo backup services around. In fact, it was one of the most attractive offerings for years until it stopped offering unlimited storage in 2020. That change in the tech giant’s strategy has left some space for other photo backup services to grow and showcase their offerings to people. Especially for people who don’t want to hand over pictures of their entire life to big tech companies, photo backup services that focus on privacy have become really attractive. That’s where Ente comes in. An open-source project by Vishnu Mohandas, a former Google employee, Ente (which means “Mine” in Malayalam) offers end-to-end encrypted photo storage across various platforms — meaning the service cannot access its users’ photos at all. The startup says it stores photos at three different locations for better reliability and access, and the open-sou ... Read full article.