As a daily library, yes; as the only archive, no. The account is personal: unless Inactive Account Manager was set up in advance, the family can only submit a request that Google does not have to grant. Photos share 15 GB with Gmail and Drive, and Google may delete an account unused for 2 years. You need a second copy outside the cloud.
What Google Photos does well
Google Photos automatically backs up what you shoot with your phone, searches by people and places and lets you keep shared albums with the family. As the place where everything from your camera ends up, it is hard to beat. The trouble starts when it is the only place the family’s photos exist. Syncing is not an independent copy: a mistake in the app or a problem with the account affects the whole library at once.
Account limits and rules
The free 15 GB is shared by Photos, Gmail and Drive. Over the limit, new photos stop being backed up. If the account stays over the limit for 2 years, Google may delete its content, giving at least 3 months’ notice. An account nobody has signed in to for 2 years is treated by Google as inactive and may also be deleted. After the owner’s death both scenarios are easy to reach: nobody signs in, and a Google One subscription, if there was one, stops being paid.
Family access after death
The account is personal. Inactive Account Manager lets you name up to 10 people who receive selected data after a period of inactivity you set. Without that setup, relatives can submit a request regarding the deceased user’s account. Google reviews each one individually, does not hand over passwords and does not promise to release any content.
How to turn it into an archive
Once a year, download your photos with Google Takeout and save the archive on a drive outside the cloud. That is the second copy in the 3-2-1 rule. For the most important photos, note who is in them, where and when they were taken. Descriptions added in Google Photos are exported into separate JSON files, so another program will not show them on its own. Leave your family a note on where the copies are and how to open them.
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