Android Google Pixel phone alternative to Google Photos

[Toogoodtowaste]

I've a Google Pixel 7a. It uses Google Photos (!) as the album. I hate it. I've always had Android phones and have used Amazon Photos as my cloud back up but also backed up photos etc to an external hard drive periodically. This worked fine.

I just don't understand Google Photos. It takes up so much space on my phone that I've had to uninstall so many apps including the Amazon Photos app. My husband's old Samsung doesn't have this issue. He has the Amazon Photos app on that as cloud backup.

Is there a way to not use Google Photos and use something else as the 'album' on your Google Pixel and use Amazon photos as back up please? I've searched online and am just confused.

I also don't trust the deleting photos from t device option with Google Photos - so many stories online of people doing this and the photos disappearing from the Google Photos cloud at the same time.

Can anyone help please? My phone is useless as it is.

I have no answer but I too dislike Google photos. I can't seem to do anything with them within GP. Does my head in. It's like they are stuck

I have both Google Photos and Amazon Photos (can't remember why, I think Amazon were offering a discount if you downloaded their app) on my Pixel.

Why can't you just use Amazon Photos if that's what you like?

Because Google Photos takes up a lot of space on my phone and I've so little space left for other apps I need I've not got the space to double up on cloud apps. You can't add in an SD card for extra storage with a Pixel either.

It's good to have two cloud options as belt & braces though. If I could, I would.

I'm completely confused by what you mean by "album" tbh. That shouldn't be taking up extra space, not deleting the photos on your phone is taking up extra space.

Can you fownload your photos to a physical drive every couple of months so you feel more confident yo not having them clogging up your phone, disable Google Photos and use Amazon Photos as your default cloud storage?

Thanks. I'm not explaining it well. To view photos on my phone I click the Google Photos icon and then what displays is my Google photos cloud. When I had a Samsung phone I had a photo gallery on the phone which read entirely separate to the Google photos and Amazon photos apps.
On the Pixel now, Google photosis the gallery iyswim? I don't know how to disable it. I can't uninstall it. It's the default for where photos I take go regardless of whether I add Amazon photos as well.