Google today said it plans to retire Picasa, which has long served as its online photo management service, in favor of the newer Google Photos product.
Google hopes to accomplish the transition over the next few months and said it is taking pains to ensure users’ photos and memories are preserved. Picasa users will be able to access, manage, and add to their existing Picasa web albums via Google Photos immediately.
Google says people who are not interested in using Google Photos can still access their Picasa web albums, but will no longer be able to add to or manage them, aside from downloading the image library. The Picasa desktop app will continue to function, but Google says it will not be updated after March 15.
Picasa and Google Photos users can instead make use of the Photos uploader tool for adding images to their online library. Google stresses that these changes are not happening immediately. The general transition away from Picasa will begin May 1, giving users plenty of time to download, move, or otherwise manage their Picasa web albums.
