The era of 15GB free Gmail storage is ending

rokkamokka

I remember the magic that was 1GB (and "infinite" because it kept slowly growing) email storage back when Hotmail gave you maybe 5MB. Crazy to think it was over 20 years ago.

ivell

It is more of an attempt to get real world IDs. Yesterday I was forced to enter phone number for first time for "login verification". I didn't request any 2FA. They also made it clear they would save the number. Alternative was not logging in. Probably a A/B testing attempt.

i67vw3

I recently got free 5TB storage for one year with the Google AI Pro plan, as I had ported my SIM card to another carrier, new carrier had some sort of partnership with Google. It was 2 TB originally, but fews days later on they just increased it to 5TB. Just bonker level of storage (for free).

ktpsns

I wonder why they quit their strategy of (practically) "infinite email storage". Compared to other data sources, after identifying hand-written E-Mails and attachment this would give them superior access to high quality LLM training material. I assume Mail content and GDrive file content still superior to what you find in the general "open" web. Maybe they don't want to be evil anymore? ;-)

andOlga

I am extremely confused by the fact that... you basically can't make a Google account without providing a phone number anymore, can you? The article even says as much. So what is this? In what scenario would this actually manifest?

magicalhippo

I'm guessing 90%+ of my Gmail inbox could be deleted without me batting an eye, I just can't be bothered because the UX t do so is horrible. Who on earth thought deleting 50 mails at a time is sufficient in the days of multi-GB inboxes?

lifestyleguru

> Users can “unlock” the full 15GB of free storage by adding a phone number to their account. On my last login to twenty years old Gmail account I was really surprised how it's possible to dismiss the "enter your phone number" screen, while other email providers deman 3d face scan and bank statements. Well, here we are... On the other hand I have twenty years old Gmail account which works without them knowing my phone number, and access codes exported maybe decade ago and they are still valid. For a service I paid nothing, that's beyond impressing.

sloped

It seems fairly obvious that the "identity" portion of this is more important than the actual cost of providing the storage. Though maybe more folks than I imagine can hit the 5GB limit quickly. I have emails dating back to 2008 and just calculated I am only using 8.5GB. I keep everything so getting down to 5GB would be a hassle more than a challenge. I would argue that Google really wants to earn your storage dollars. Their constant notifications on my device warning me I was low on space is what drove me to Immich.