Today, I noticed that the company is promoting the Google One 2TB subscription upgrade hand-in-hand with the Nest Hub smart display as a sort of “gift” for your decision to upgrade. I said before that it came at no cost, but that’s in quotes for a reason. The premise is that you’re already spending $99 USD today to join the One with massive storage, but really this device is $99 USD off the shelf. If you look at it this way, you’re technically paying for the hardware out of pocket and getting a year of free storage. Clever psychology, I know. If you’re upgrading from a 200GB storage tier like I did, you’re already paying $36 USD per year, so the difference between this and the Hub means you’re paying about $63 USD for it instead of the full $99. I know that’s a funny way to look at it, but I tend to think in those terms, not the marketing gimmicks that companies put in your pockets. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with 2TB of cloud storage as I still haven’t maxed out what I’ve had for years, but there’s no cancellation fee or contract with Google One so you can upgrade to get the device, enjoy larger storage limits for the rest of the year, then downgrade so you’re not unnecessarily paying a hundred dollars a year instead of a third of that. No doubt some will forget to downgrade (put it on the calendar!), but Google supports people who do, or just enjoy the extra space and realize they need it eventually. Some people just haven’t even tried Google One, so it’s a nice little perk to attract those who have only used free Google Accounts with no sign-in until now. You can check the offer if you want and upgrade if you feel compelled. If you do, you’ll receive an email about your “free” Nest Hub shortly after so you can claim it through the Google Store via a promo code that will take 100% off the cost, as the company covers the shipping cost as well.
