More than four years after the last entry, an article published today in the official blog of Picasa announces the end of the service, to guide all the efforts of Google into a single product-oriented image: Google Photos.
The closure affects both the Picasa web albums, which will be integrated into Google Photos, and also to the own desktop application which, although it will continue to operate as usual, no longer have support from Google or receive new versions.
The news does not quite unexpectedly, because since the launch of Google Photos last year numerous rumors pointed that Google wanted to move all users from Picasa to its new photo management service. In addition, the desktop application itself had long been in a kind of hibernation, no news and relevant news, and share photo album was directly absorbed by Google+.
With the launch of Google Photos, much more oriented to mobile and has a learning ability to organize and tag photos automatically, the end of Picasa we saw come – although the decision has not been easy. “We believe we can create a much better experience if we focus on one service that has many more features and works on both desktop and mobile, instead of dividing our efforts on two different products”, says Anil Sabharwal, Director of Google Photos in his statement.
What will happen to my Picasa Web Albums?
If you have online albums in Picasa, do not worry, because the closing is not imminent. Google knows that many of its members have spent literally hours organizing photos in Picasa and creating albums with them and give enough time – and the right tools – to access content and organize it.
For those who have online Picasa albums, the easiest way to access and modify that content is done through Google photos. As explained in the news, photos and videos posted on Picasa albums are already integrated with Google Photos, and through this app may continue uploading photos and organizing them in collections.
Those who do not want to use Google photos, or who wish to access certain specific details such as tags, comments or captions, Picasa can do so through a utility in which Google is working. In this way, you can view or download your Picasa albums – but you can not create new albums, organize or edit them, and functions restricted to Google Photos.
These changes, Google emphasizes, will not happen overnight, but it will begin to unfold from 1 May 2016. In the meantime, you can still use Picasa albums as usual.
Goodbye to Picasa
As for the desktop application, Google also announced that they will stop giving support from 15 March 2016. The application will continue to operate as usual (and even be able to continue downloading until that day), but Google will no longer devote more development time, and therefore will not receive further updates. Alternatively, Google redirects to the usefulness of Google Photos to upload images from your desktop.
After so much time with us as an application to manage and optimize photos, Picasa closing causes a pang of sadness. On the other hand, the reasons behind this decision are perfectly understandable. Google Photos is a more innovative and with more potential, with the most modern product “classic” program as Picasa doesn’t have much that to do.