Google launched an iOS and Android app which lets users store “unlimited, high-quality photos and videos for free”.

According to Anil Sabharwal, who is heading the venture, Google Photos, which is also available online, is a “standalone product that gives you a home for all your photos and videos”, adding that data can be “backed up and synced, so you can have peace of mind that your photos are safe, available across all your devices.”

A feature that stands out in Google Photos is that it offers to delete similar photos, which could make life easier for users who struggle with storage space on their devices. This feature was demonstrated at a press event near the recent Google I/O developer conference, which Google calls “the free-up space ability”, Business Insider reported.

“We maintain the original resolution up to 16MP for photos, and 1080p high-definition for videos, and store compressed versions of the photos and videos in beautiful, print-quality resolution,” Sabharwal wrote in a blog post.

Google Photos claims to make searching for photos easy by automatically organising them without the need to put into albums or add labels. It also offers editing options, the ability to create collages, animations and movies with soundtracks, and allows users to create a link to share hundreds of photos at once.