I found a clever Google Photos trick that made my storage feel unlimited

Published Aug 30, 2026, 8:15 AM EDT No popular cloud storage provider offers unlimited storage in its consumer tier. There is no universal maximum, but 2TB is usually the common high-end consumer offering from most cloud storage providers. It doesn't make business sense, but I wish I could get that much storage without spending on subscriptions. This would've finally stopped me from hitting the cloud storage limit on Google Photos on my Android phone. I wouldn't have made that wish had I not relied so much on Google Photos. Most of my cloud storage goes to photos and videos in Google Photos. Turning a spare PC into private cloud storage through self-hosting works, but it doesn't come close to the level of convenience Google Photos offers on Android phones. I realized this after canceling my Google One storage subscription and replacing it with self-hosted Nextcloud. That's why my latest discovery of a clever Google Photos trick made me so happy: It made my storage feel unlimited. Google Photos' Partner Sharing feature doesn't waste my storage I need some help from outside for this to work, though Google Photos' Partner Sharing doesn't take your storage from 15GB, or whatever quota you have, and make it unlimited. Instead, it helps you to prevent your storage from shrinking. Google won't like me saying this, but if you have someone in your family who has an Android phone and a Gmail account, ask them to send you an invite using the Partner Sharing feature in Google Photos. It lets you access their photos on your phone without those shots taking up your storage space. My partner has a Google One subscription, and she shares our vacation photos using Partner Sharing. Those photos eat up her storage, but not mine, because they aren't stored on my account. I'll lose access if she stops sharing with me. However, you don't have to rely on someone else if you have more than one Gmail account. This allows you to take photos and use Partner Sharing on Google Photos to share them with your main account. This will use up storage in your other account, but your main account retains the same amount of storage space no matter how many GBs of photos and videos you share with yourself. I don't live alone, so instead of using my other Gmail accounts, I find it more useful to have someone close to me who has a Google One subscription share their photos with me. It's not truly unlimited storage, but it takes the pressure off the limited space in your account, making it feel like you'll never run out of storage. How to enable the Partner Sharing feature in Google Photos This isn't hidden deep in settings The Partner Sharing feature is available in Google Photos Settings. Follow the steps below to start sharing your photos with someone. Open Google Photos Settings. Tap Sharing. Select Partner Sharing. Click the Select partner button. Select the person you want to share with or type the name or email address of the person. Select Confirm. If you are a recipient, you'll get a notification on your phone to accept the invitation. You'll get access to the photos only after you accept the invitation. If you are a sender, you don't have to share all your photos with someone. You select the ones you want to share before sending the invitation. This is how I get our vacation photos on my phone. Alternatively, you can also select a start date, and Google Photos will share all photos from that date onward with the recipient. As a recipient, you can also turn on notifications for every new upload in Google Photos from the sender. However, Google Photos shares only photos that were backed up. You can only share your photos using the Partner Sharing feature with one person. Even if you are a Google One subscriber, this is a handy trick to save storage for something more important, like documents. It only takes a few seconds to set up for both the sender and the recipient. Partner Sharing made me stop worrying about Google Photos storage I don't need unlimited storage on Google Photos, because I don't take a lot of photos even when I travel. What's more important is that I don't worry about Google Photos storage. The Partner Sharing functionality gives me that peace of mind. Instead of adding storage, it helps me use my free Google One storage better. Since Google Photos takes up the most space, Partner Sharing gives me one less reason to buy a subscription. It feels like a win.