Google to shut down Picasa, moves users’ content to Photos app

Shutting down an app or a service is not new for giant technology companies in the Silicon Valley, at least not for internet major Google, which has now announced to pull the plug on Picasa -- Google's photo sharing application.

"After much thought and consideration, we have decided to retire Picasa over in the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos. We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products," Google said in an official blog post adding that the desktop app will no longer be supported after the 'Ides of March' (March 15).

Read more: Google is pulling the plug on its 'My Tracks' app

But don't be scared because your content, if any, in Picasa is safe. The company has automatically shifted the content to Google Photos and users can access them if they log in to the app which is available across all platforms or devices.

"If you have photos or videos in a Picasa Web Album today, the easiest way to still access, modify and share most of that content is to log in to Google Photos, and all your photos and videos will already be there. Using Google Photos, you can continue to upload and organise your memories, as well as enjoy other great benefits like better ways to search and share your images," the blog post said.

However, for those of you who don't want to use the Google Photos app, the company is currently designing a platform from where users can download, delete and see their content including tags and captions. The only limitation will be that you cannot create new albums in the platform.

Google had scripted an arrangement with Picasa back in 2004 when it wanted to improve the blogger photo service.