It will soon be possible to back up Facebook photos directly to Google Photos. The feature will be available in the first half of 2020
Facebook has announced the release of the first tool for portability of personal data of its users. This tool will allow Facebook members to transfer to Google Photos the images uploaded over the years on their profile and thus make a backup copy of media files.
For now, the tool dedicated to the transfer of photos of the famous social network is under development and initially will be available only in Ireland. According to information provided by the Menlo Park company itself, the tool should be launched in the rest of the world by mid-2020. In short, before next summer we will be able to create backup copies of our profile information and upload them directly to the cloud, without wasting a single second of our time.
Data portability
Currently Facebook has already made available to its users a service with which you can download your data and store them on the hard drive of your PC. The new tool that Menlo Park's developers are working on will allow you to send your data to another online service without going through your PC: a real revolution.
But why is Facebook so interested in data portability? For now, the reasons are still not clear and it is not known. For many analysts it would be a first move of the U.S. giant in anticipation of the arrival of more restrictive privacy laws. For others, instead, it could be a first step of the social platform towards a more open treatment of personal data and aimed at ensuring them a greater control.
Not only Facebook
But the project related to data portability is not exclusive to Facebook. Obviously, all the big players are investing heavily in data portability. Marck Zuckerberg's social is just one of the subjects that are part of the larger program called Data Transfer Project. Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Apple are also participating in the project launched in 2018 that aims to use services' existing APIs and authorization mechanisms to access data.
The open-source platform wanted by the Data Transfer Project consortium will make possible the portability of data from service to service and will allow people surfing the web to easily move their data between different online service providers whenever they want.
How to transfer photos from Facebook to Google Foto
Since May 2020, the feature has been active in Italy as well. Users can transfer images from Facebook to Google Photos using the desktop version of the social network. To do so, you have to enter the Settings> Your Facebook information and then click on "Transfer a copy of your photos and videos". At this point you have to enter your Facebook password and then choose Google Photos as the destination. To transfer both pictures and videos, you need to repeat the operation twice as you cannot do it together.