One of the most exasperating aspects of modern technology is how easily exciting features can be taken away, despite their initial promise. This week, owners of Nixplay smart digital photo frames experienced just that, as the company rolled out an update that “removes premium features and reduces limits,” including cutting cloud photo and video storage down to just 500MB.
Nixplay had long offered free cloud storage; for instance, a 2016 PCMag review mentioned an 8-inch frame that came with 10GB of storage at no extra cost. Now, in addition to the lower storage limits, the company has also eliminated the previously free ability to sync a Google Photos album. Nixplay’s announcement indicated that customers with free accounts exceeding the new 500MB limit would find some content “restricted from sharing or viewing on a frame unless they edit their content or upgrade to a paid plan.”
Naturally, Nixplay users are voicing their dissatisfaction on the company’s subreddit, with many posts criticizing the changes as affecting existing customers rather than just new ones, and some even calling it a scam. One user reluctantly stated they’d subscribe, not because they wanted to, but because they’ve stored “a few thousand photos in the cloud” and don’t want to teach their partner, who is averse to computers, how to use a new app.
Nixplay’s subscription options are priced at $19.99 per year for 100GB of storage (Nixplay Lite) or $29.99 per year for unlimited storage (Nixplay Plus). Both tiers include the ability to sync with Google Photos, although it remains unclear if this feature works as it did before, especially given recent changes Google made that disrupted how digital frames sync with its photo service.
