Before there was Google Photos, there was Picasa and if you don’t know what it is or have never used it, now would not be the time give it a go. Google has announced that as of May 1st they will be ‘retiring’ the service.
What to do if you’re an existing Picasa user? If you’re ready to accept Google Photos as a replacement to Picasa then all you need to do is log into Google Photos and all of your uploaded images will be there waiting for you. If, however, you’re not convinced about Google Photos then Google will be allowing existing Picasa users to continue to access their web albums and view, download or delete them – though editing features will be switched off.
What about my desktop client? The desktop application will also be ‘retired’ meaning that it will continue to work as it does but will not receive any future updates. Google Photos does have its own desktop photo uploader, found here, that I have used and it works as you would expect.
For diehard fans of Picasa, of which there are still many, I doubt there will be much that can be done to appease them. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for many Google products, Google has somewhat of a track record for closing down apps and service many people love, let’s not mention Reader.
As a Google Photos user, I can say that I am very impressed with the service and am continually impressed by the ability to search for images based on visual content instead of user applied tags. For the Picasa power users out there let’s hope you find a suitable replacement.
Know of a good alternative to Picasa? Share it with others in the comments.
RIP Reader. I won’t be too upset at Picasa retiring but I’ll be sharpening my pitchfork if they kill off Photos.
This might be a good chance for flicker to attract new customers
“let’s not mention Reader.”
Too late, you already did. WHY GOOGLE WHY?!?!?!?!? Oh Reader, I still miss thee. Feedly’s great but there just isn’t the same spark.