Beside of the model quality or whatever, I think the subscription plan tiers are structured in a quite weird way, especially for those who already use Google One. Previously, the tiers are reasonably structured:
1. $9.99/month for 2TB + other benefits. Offered in both monthly and annual plans.
2. $24.99/month for 5TB. Includes all benefits above. Offered in both monthly and annual plans.
3. Higher tiers for 10~30TB. Includes all benefits above. Offered only in monthly plans.
The 3rd option doesn't have an annual plan but other than that it's consistent and easy to understand. Now we have one more plan for "AI".
4. $19.99/month for 2TB + other benefits + Gemini access. Offered only in monthly plans.
Now the existing Google One subscribers are now put in a weird situation. 2TB annual plan users now need to move to a monthly plan to use Gemini. It's worse for higher tiers, since they don't have an upgrade option at all without decreasing the storage size. And Google Fi users are even in the worst case, as they don't even have an option for upgrade, even if they're willing to do so.
I guess they know this so they specified that high tier subscribers can use AI features at no extra charge until July 31 and probably prepare a new plan for them then, but this still create lots of user confusions. Having YT Premium as a separate subscription plan is already a pain, but Google, you don't have to bring this trouble into the product supposed to be the "One".
Good catch! I upgraded to Gemini Advanced to try it out for 2 months and figured I’d cancel. There does not seem to be a way to downgrade the plan without canceling and I was on the 100GB/yr plan through August. No discount on new monthly subscription. Bummer.
Yeah, Gemini Advanced should just be an add-on for any Google One plan. The current structure makes it look like an intern with no experience came up with it and everyone just rolled with it and pushed it to production.
They did the same pricing scheme for YouTube premium family plans. My guess is that they took out the annual plans so they can extract more money from customers.
Looks like they got some complaints from Fi users and now they've updated their wording to a more reasonable one; previously it was something like "no, you can't, you gotta remove your Google Fi Unlimited benefits via customer service" or similar.
I guess they know this so they specified that high tier subscribers can use AI features at no extra charge until July 31 and probably prepare a new plan for them then, but this still create lots of user confusions. Having YT Premium as a separate subscription plan is already a pain, but Google, you don't have to bring this trouble into the product supposed to be the "One".