A lot of questions were raised up about the future of “Picasa” since the launch of Google Photos in May 2015. After much thought and consideration, Google Photos has decided to retire Picasa, a photograph and video sharing service, over the coming months to focus entirely on a single photo service. They believe they can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktops.
Therefore, if you have photos or videos in a Picasa Web Album today, the easiest way to still access, modify and share most of that content is to log in to your Google Photos account, and all your photos and videos will already be there. For those that have no interest in using the service or those that might still want to be able to view specific content such as comments, Google Photos plans on creating a new place for you to access your Picasa Web Albums that will enable you to view, download or delete your Picasa Web Album, but you won’t be able to create or organize or edit albums.
According to Google Photos blog, the update isn’t happening today and if you have a Picasa Web Album you can keep using it as normal. The updates will start rolling out on May 1, 2016.
Head of Google Photos Anil Sabharwal pointed out that, “As of March 15, 2016, we will no longer be supporting the Picasa desktop application. For those who have already downloaded this or choose to do so before this date it will continue to work as it does today, but we will not be developing it further, and there will be no future updates. If you choose to switch to Google Photos, you can continue to upload photos and videos using the desktop uploader.”[related-posts]
