Facebook Just Made Backing Up Your Embarrassing College Photos So Much Simpler

Facebook is giving you yet another way to back up your old, embarrassing college photos. The transfer service, meant to make it easier to move data around between all your favorite platforms, was first released in Ireland on Dec. 2 and will be available everywhere else during the first half of 2020. Once it rolls out, you'll have the ability to transfer your Facebook photos to Google, shift your data to other places as you please, and have backups of all the memories you hold closest to you.

If the idea of having your embarrassing college photos in more than one place is not the most comforting to you, you're probably not alone. But if you're someone who's been looking to delete your Facebook account or get rid of older things for professional reasons, then this project could be super useful. You can get rid of your Facebook account entirely without losing anything, declutter it, or simply back it up without having to download any massive data file to your computer (which can still get lost if it ever breaks or gets damaged).

The new Facebook-to-Google Photos transfer tool is part of a larger collaborative Data Transfer Project, originally announced in 2018, that includes other big media names like Google, Microsoft, and Twitter. Overall it aims to create an easier way for everyday users of these platforms to transfer data between each one, also known as data portability. This means you'll soon be able to move your favorite photos between your different social media accounts. And while Facebook recognized the potential complications of transferring data between two services in a July 2018 press release, it also expects this service to be a stepping stone for future updates. The company plans on assessing user feedback on the transfer tool before moving on to adding more transfer services.

Though the tool that lets you transfer photos from Facebook to Google Photos isn't available in the U.S. just yet, it's a pretty easy process. In order to access the transfer tool, you would go into "Settings" on your Facebook profile, according to Engadget. You'd then go into "Your Facebook Information," and where you now only see an option to "Download Your Information," you'll soon be able to see an option to upload your photos and videos to Google Photos. Eventually, other platforms will allow you the same options.

But why Google Photos? The storage app allows you to upload up to 30TB of photos and videos so you can keep all of your funniest and most heartwarming memories in one place, without worrying about running out of space. The 30TB plan costs $299 a month, but you can also get much cheaper options including 2TB for $9.99 a month, 200 GB for $2.80 a month, or 15GB for free. Google Photos allows you to search through your photos by looking for things that might appear in your photos — like your dog — without having to tag each picture. Plus, staying in the spirit of collaboration, Google Photos lets you pool your photos together with other users, regardless of what device anyone has.

While this this new tool might be especially exciting if you want to quickly backup your old but timeless Facebook photos, it's also the beginning of a new collaboration between some of the biggest names in social media platforming. And while it's just photos and videos right now, the Data Transfer Project opens doors to a potential future of transferring all of your favorite memories from one platform to the next, without much hassle.