Google buys Odysee photo sharing/backup app, rolls into G+

Google may be preparing to bulk up its photo sharing and backup features, as the company has just acquired Odysee, an app that automatically backs up smartphone photos and video to other home computers. As a result of the deal, the app will close down on February 23rd and the development team will be joining Google+.

Odysee is a rather feature rich service. As well as backups, it enables users set up private, automatic sharing with other users and the team has developed an API for integrating the service with third party applications. Odysee keeps high quality copies of recently accessed photos and videos on the user’s home PC, as well as online, and also has a caching feature to access pictures even if the home computer is offline. The app also intelligently predicts which pictures are less likely to be accessed and keeps lower quality backups of these files, similar to the quality of Facebook or Instagram.

Given that the developers will be joining the Google+ team, it seems likely that some of Odysee’s media backup and sharing features will eventually find their way into Google’s social media platform. There have also been rumors circulating that Google may be preparing to launch Photos as a standalone service, and Odysee’s features could help give the app an edge over the established competition.

The app has already been removed from the Play Store, but existing Odysee users will still be able to download their photos and videos, even after the shutdown in the final week of February.