A Google Photos alternative, compared honestly
Google Photos is a polished, mature service, and for many people it’s enough. But if you want photos that nobody but you can open, it’s worth looking around. Here’s how My Albums differs, where Google is better, and how to move over.
First year free · 5 GB · no card
The real difference: who holds the keys
In Google Photos, Google holds the keys to your pictures. That means access is technically possible — on a government request, through an employee’s mistake, in a breach. It’s not an accusation; it’s how the service is built, and how most clouds work.
My Albums encrypts photos and videos on your phone before upload (AES-256-GCM). The key is created on your device and never reaches our server, so we physically cannot open your photos. Every photo has a “How this file looks on the server” link that shows the real encrypted bytes from storage next to the picture. How to verify the encryption yourself.
Side by side
| Google Photos | My Albums | |
|---|---|---|
| Encryption keys | Held by Google | Only you, on your device |
| Face recognition | On Google’s side | On your phone; face data is encrypted and you confirm every tag |
| Search | By what’s in the picture: objects, text | By people, events, dates and places — on your phone |
| Free storage | 15 GB per Google Account (shared with Gmail and Drive) | 5 GB for the first year |
| Paid plans | Cheaper | 50 GB for 100 ⭐, 100 GB for 200 ⭐ a month — about twice Google’s price |
| Uploading | Automatic, in the background | You pick the files and keep Telegram open |
| Where it runs | Apps and browser on any device | Only inside Telegram: iPhone, Android, computer |
What Google does better
- Content search. Google finds “dog”, “beach” or text in a photo. We don’t search by objects — only by tagged people, events, dates and places.
- Automatic backup. Google uploads new photos in the background. In My Albums, you choose the files.
- Price. 15 GB free per Google Account, and paid plans cost about half of ours.
- Works without Telegram. Apps and a browser on any device. My Albums lives only in Telegram.
- Editing and automatic collections. We have no editor: we keep your originals exactly as they are.
What you get with My Albums
- Only you hold the key — and you can check that in the app.
- “Who’s in this photo” suggestions from day one. Faces are recognized on your phone, and the server never sees them. The app only suggests; you decide.
- Originals, uncompressed: HEIC, JPEG, video; RAW and TIFF from a computer. Up to 20 GB per file.
- A secret album locked with a separate password that neither we nor your Telegram account have.
- Shared albums: invite family or send a link with a code — only the people you let in will see the photos.
- No Google account: everything lives in Telegram, the same on iPhone and Android.
How to move from Google Photos
- Go to Google Takeout, leave only Google Photos selected and create an export. Google will email you a link; a big library arrives as several archives.
- Download the archives to a computer and unzip them all into one folder.
- In Telegram Desktop, open @MyAlbumsBot → Open photos. If it’s your first time, save the 52-character recovery code.
- Upload tab → “Choose a folder — it becomes an album” → pick the whole unzipped Takeout folder (or the Google Photos folder inside it); there’s no need to dig into subfolders. Google albums become albums with the same names. Year folders (“Photos from 2023”) don’t become albums, and a photo that sits in both a year folder and an album is uploaded once. The trash folder is skipped.
- Open a few originals in My Albums before you delete anything in Google.
Dates, places and captions. Google keeps them not inside the photo but in separate JSON files next to it. The app takes the date, place (coordinates) and caption from those files when the photo itself has none; a date stored in the photo always wins. Edited copies (“-edited”) and duplicates with “(1)” in the name get their details too. The JSON files themselves aren’t uploaded. People tags from Google don’t come over — you can tag people again in My Albums.
Frequently asked questions
Is My Albums cheaper than Google Photos?
No. 50 GB is 100 ⭐ and 100 GB is 200 ⭐ a month (about $2 and $4) — roughly twice Google’s price. You’re not paying for disk space; you’re paying for space nobody but you can reach. The first year is 5 GB free, no card.
Does My Albums recognize faces like Google?
From day one the app suggests who is in a new photo, but faces are recognized on your phone and the face data is encrypted along with the photo. The app only suggests — you confirm. There’s no search by objects like “dog” or “beach”.
Will albums, dates and places come over from Google Takeout?
Yes. Google albums become albums with the same names; year folders don’t. The app takes the date, place and caption from Takeout’s JSON files when the photo itself has none. People tags from Google aren’t imported.
Can I switch without a computer?
Folder upload works only on a computer, in Telegram Desktop. You can upload photos from your phone’s gallery in batches, but for a Google archive a computer is much easier.
What if I want to leave My Albums later?
You can export the whole archive to a folder on your computer: in Telegram Desktop, Albums → ⋯ → “Export the archive to your computer”. If you stop paying, your photos aren’t deleted: you can still view and download them; only new uploads pause.
Move to a place
where only you hold the key.
An encrypted photo cloud inside Telegram. First year: 5 GB free, no card.
Open in TelegramFirst year free · 5 GB · no card