Some smartphone owners might want to uninstall Google Photos, the Android app that the search engine company launched last month, if it is not their cup of tea. Users who delete the mobile app must switch off the photo backup in the Google Setting menu, to stop uploading new images to the cloud service.
David Arnott, Nashville Business Journal writer, learned about the quirk. This happened when several family photos popped up in Google Photos after he had finished uninstalling the app from his gadget, according to News Maine.
Google Photos does not use its own setting menu for a backup system. It utilizes the Google settings menu instead, so if users choose to automatically upload new images when installing the Android app, the settings will stay put even after they have wiped out the application from their mobile phone, according to The Verge.
Users who want to turn off the feature must tap on "Google Photo Backup" in the phone menu. Then they must change the option.
Android users might decide to ditch the app for various reasons. Some might be maintaining other photo sharing accounts, while others could have security concerns.
Google Photos uses public URLs that are so-called "unguessable," which has scared the socks off some Android users. However, the URLs are harder to guess than account passwords.
Still, seeing deleted photos show up again could be a big shock for some Android users, as Arnott experienced. He was in a "semi-panic."
The bottom line is that some cloud services can work across different mobile devices. Thus, uninstalling one cloud app might not end the whole service, although a complete opt out could be hard as nails.