Google has made a notable change to its account storage policy, limiting the usual 15GB of free storage only to accounts that are verified with a phone number.
For years now, signing up for a Google account has automatically granted users access to a pool of 15GB of free storage shared across Gmail, Drive, and Photos. Compared to Apple and some others, it’s a generous amount that can go quite a long ways.
But, now, there’s an asterisk on this.
One user was notified during the setup process of a new Google account that they would only get 5GB of free storage. To get 15GB, the user would need to link a phone number to the account.
Google’s notice reads:
