6 ms·

Whatever you do, do not buy a Google Apps (sorry, G Suite) account for personal use. I made this mistake years ago and it bites me constantly. You get locked in

Whatever you do, do not buy a Google Apps (sorry, G Suite) account for personal use. I made this mistake years ago and it bites me constantly. You get locked in to paying per month just so you get access to the things you bought through it (movies, apps, etc) and for that privilege you get locked out of many new features like Spaces, Google Now email cards, Fi, the new Trips app, Google Play Family Sharing.

Adaptive 10y ago
I agree fully on the lame way Google rolls out (or fails to roll out) key features for Google Apps. Even when features do roll out, they are sometimes incomplete, for example, you can't set up Google Music family accounts with Google Apps accounts. Dumb. I like Google Music but Spotify is easier for me to use with my family's various google apps accounts. However, there is one VERY important difference: data ownership and privacy. Google Apps for Work (and edu) accounts, which I use for various organizations as well as even for my own personal, single-user domain, have much better data ownership and privacy terms: See: https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en Does Google use my organization’s data in Google Apps services or Cloud Platform for advertising purposes? No. There are no ads in Google Apps Services or Google Cloud Platform, and we have no plans to change this in the future. We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other Google Apps services. Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps services for advertising purposes. The process is different for our free offerings and the consumer space. For information on our free consumer products, be sure to check Google's Privacy and Terms page for more consumer tools and information relating to consumer privacy.
- bad_user 10y ago
  Those privacy terms apply only for the included apps. But when you search on Google, your searches get mined just like everybody else ;-) Just like the parent, I once owned a Google Apps account and moved off it because of the lock-in effect. Now I have a personal account and no longer use Gmail at all. So I don't care about Gmail's privacy terms, because it no longer applies to me.
- jakebasile 10y ago
  Yeah, Apps accounts have much different privacy terms and this is likely the reason for some of their exclusions such as Google Now email cards but it cannot logically explain why other things don't work like Play Music family plans. Still, if I had the choice I'd opt in to the standard privacy policy in an instant. I understand some people's concerns about Google information gathering but it's not a concern of mine. I just want things to work.
  - dragonwriter 10y ago
    Google play family plans don't work because Apps is expressly designed for non-family organizations. Ideally, they would have organizational plans, but the parameters for that are different. Features that aren't relevant to the intended target market may be useful to people making atypical uses, but it's quite likely not commercially sensible to bother with them, and building a robust separate G Suite for Personal Domains offering that takes the right mix of features of the existing consumer and organizational offerings may itself not serve enough of a market to be worth the effort.
Aldo_MX 10y ago
At this point I would even pay to transfer everything from my apps account to my good old gmail account :/
nagarjun 10y ago
Can't you just activate Inbox etc. in your G Suite admin settings? Granted, they are not available to G Suite users instantly after consumers but they are available, nevertheless. For my personal use, I have a custom domain on Outlook.com and this account is also a generic Google Account so I have access to the best of Microsoft and Google in one account. Might be a good approach but the only thing I wish is that Outlook had some of Google Inbox's capabilities. Since I don't use Google for email, my Android phone can't automatically sniff for stuff like parcels or movie tickets and show me Now cards in my device. Other than that, I have a full-fledged Google account tied to my Outlook.com email. That's been my setup for a while.
the_mitsuhiko 10y ago
I just use two accounts. One for my mail and calendar and one for the google products. Not really a big deal.

Adaptive 10y ago

I agree fully on the lame way Google rolls out (or fails to roll out) key features for Google Apps. Even when features do roll out, they are sometimes incomplete, for example, you can't set up Google Music family accounts with Google Apps accounts. Dumb. I like Google Music but Spotify is easier for me to use with my family's various google apps accounts. However, there is one VERY important difference: data ownership and privacy. Google Apps for Work (and edu) accounts, which I use for various organizations as well as even for my own personal, single-user domain, have much better data ownership and privacy terms: See: https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en https://support.google.com/work/answer/6056650?hl=en Does Google use my organization’s data in Google Apps services or Cloud Platform for advertising purposes? No. There are no ads in Google Apps Services or Google Cloud Platform, and we have no plans to change this in the future. We do not scan for advertising purposes in Gmail or other Google Apps services. Google does not collect or use data in Google Apps services for advertising purposes. The process is different for our free offerings and the consumer space. For information on our free consumer products, be sure to check Google's Privacy and Terms page for more consumer tools and information relating to consumer privacy.

bad_user 10y ago
Those privacy terms apply only for the included apps. But when you search on Google, your searches get mined just like everybody else ;-) Just like the parent, I once owned a Google Apps account and moved off it because of the lock-in effect. Now I have a personal account and no longer use Gmail at all. So I don't care about Gmail's privacy terms, because it no longer applies to me.
jakebasile 10y ago
Yeah, Apps accounts have much different privacy terms and this is likely the reason for some of their exclusions such as Google Now email cards but it cannot logically explain why other things don't work like Play Music family plans. Still, if I had the choice I'd opt in to the standard privacy policy in an instant. I understand some people's concerns about Google information gathering but it's not a concern of mine. I just want things to work.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  Google play family plans don't work because Apps is expressly designed for non-family organizations. Ideally, they would have organizational plans, but the parameters for that are different. Features that aren't relevant to the intended target market may be useful to people making atypical uses, but it's quite likely not commercially sensible to bother with them, and building a robust separate G Suite for Personal Domains offering that takes the right mix of features of the existing consumer and organizational offerings may itself not serve enough of a market to be worth the effort.

Aldo_MX 10y ago

At this point I would even pay to transfer everything from my apps account to my good old gmail account :/

nagarjun 10y ago

Can't you just activate Inbox etc. in your G Suite admin settings? Granted, they are not available to G Suite users instantly after consumers but they are available, nevertheless. For my personal use, I have a custom domain on Outlook.com and this account is also a generic Google Account so I have access to the best of Microsoft and Google in one account. Might be a good approach but the only thing I wish is that Outlook had some of Google Inbox's capabilities. Since I don't use Google for email, my Android phone can't automatically sniff for stuff like parcels or movie tickets and show me Now cards in my device. Other than that, I have a full-fledged Google account tied to my Outlook.com email. That's been my setup for a while.

the_mitsuhiko 10y ago

I just use two accounts. One for my mail and calendar and one for the google products. Not really a big deal.