Google may reduce your Gmail storage from 15GB to 5GB, unless you provide your phone number

For the past few years, Google has been offering 15GB of free cloud storage for Gmail accounts, with the option to purchase more. This 15GB is shared across Google Drive, Photos, and Gmail, which means that if you back up too many photos and hit your storage quota, you may be unable to receive more emails. However, it appears that the company is now testing reducing this quota even further, until certain conditions are met.

According to a report from Android Authority, some users are only being offered 5GB of free storage, down from the usual 15GB, when they create a new Gmail account. If they want to unlock the remaining 10GB, they need to provide their contact number.

Interestingly, this change is currently being applied only to new signups, as existing accounts that don't store a contact number are continuing to show 15GB. Google did not announce this modification in its storage plans, even on its support page, until customers discovered and reported it themselves. At that point, Google issued a statement to the outlet, confirming the experiment:

We’re testing a new storage policy for new accounts created in select regions that will help us continue to provide a high quality storage service to our users, while encouraging users to improve their account security and data recovery.

The positioning of this move as a way to improve the security posture of personal accounts is certainly interesting, as it essentially allows Google to offer new users less storage space, unless they provide some personal information that can be linked to their account. It also gives the company a pathway to impose the policy on existing users, too, by emphasizing that it's important for better security. However, there appears to be no indication of such plans right now. For now, this experiment seems to be limited to a few regions, and Google will likely monitor feedback before deciding to roll it out globally.