Backup your iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone with Google One

How many of you have a Google account which lets you use a plethora of services including Gmail, Drive, and many more? Most likely, those reading this already have one.

Even with Google setting up a Middle East region for Google Cloud in Qatar, expanding Google One to more countries in the region where average user has more than one smartphone. If they do, it’s likely that one is an iPhone and the other is powered by Android.

Drive to One

Majority of people are familiar with Google Drive. However, Google One is an upgraded replacement to it as your free storage is shared between Drive/Gmail/Google Photos. You’re already on the free plan which gives you 15GB with your current account for Drive, Photos and Gmail.

What’s changed is that the pricing structure has been revised which looks to add more value at a lesser cost. In addition, you get access to Google Experts for any help via email, chat, or phone available 24/7 if and only if you’re on any of the paid subscriptions.

The service is also being updated to make it easier to manage your storage, either via the app or web, across all of the different Google services.

Android backups for FREE and iOS backups for convenience

The Android version of the app, which already backs up a range of files, will now offer backups without a Google One membership. That makes automatic Android backups available for supported devices without any cost (i.e. FREE), but we’ll have to see if that also includes Huawei devices as they use the open-source fork.

Quite a convincing selling point, especially if you’re moving from one Android device to another and reduces the friction of moving your data. This will be available wherever Google One is an option (more on this later).

There will be an iOS version of the app for the iPhone and iPad, which will help users store their photos, videos, contacts, and calendars. Given the sandbox nature of iOS and iPadOS, this restricts what kind of files can be backed up compared to Android devices due to their integration of Google Services within the OS.

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Google One’s availability was still restricted to select markets when it first launched back in 2018.

As of the time of publication, these are the countries where Google One is currently available (by region), so you can enjoy many of these privileges. You can also sign up here to one of their plans.

When the first Middle East region for Google Cloud is brought online, it’ll greatly help with users of both OS ecosystems in backing and restoring their data.