


These include the aforementioned Chrome browser and Chrome Remote Desktop apps, which are ideal if you use a Chromebook.Īpple ditched iTunes on the Mac in 2019, but on Windows, you still have to use iTunes if you want to back up your iPhone (or iPad) locally. While Google has its own mobile platform in Android, the company produces a large number of iOS apps, too, and they're some of the best third-party apps available on the service. There's even a free version of Outlook you can use instead of Apple Mail. You can take notes and access them on the go with OneNote, and grab native versions of Office, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams to get work done.

It works just fine on an iPhone and offers 5 GB of free space (or 1 TB, if you're a Microsoft 365 subscriber). OneDrive is Microsoft's answer to iCloud and Google Drive. It will sync your information, including tabs and Cortana preferences. On Windows, Microsoft Edge is the obvious choice for a browser. If you already use a prominent Microsoft or Google service, there's a good chance there's an iOS companion app for it. Microsoft and Google both produce some of the best third-party apps on Apple's platform.

Microsoft and Google Make Excellent iOS Apps Both support background uploads, so your media will be backed up automatically. These probably aren't as reliable as the native Photos app in terms of consistently updating in the background however, they do provide workable alternatives to iCloud. Once your images are uploaded, you can access them via your browser or a dedicated native app for iOS and Android.Īnother option is to use an app like OneDrive or Dropbox to sync your photos to a computer. Google provides 15 GB of storage space for free, but after you reach that, you'll have to purchase more. If you want to keep the originals, then you'll need sufficient room on your Google Drive. It offers unlimited storage if you allow Google to compress your images to 16 megapixels (that is, 4,920p x 3,264p) and your videos to 1,080p. If you use anything other than macOS, it might be best to avoid iCloud Photos altogether. Unfortunately, there isn't an app for Chromebook or Linux, and Windows functionality isn't the best. ICloud Photos is an optional service that stores all your photos and videos on the cloud, so you can access them on virtually any device. Sync Photos via Google Photos, OneDrive, or Dropbox
