Ente wants to take on Google Photos with its privacy-first photo storage service
Apr 2, 2025
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A new challenger emerges in the photo storage arena, aiming to give Google Photos a run for its money. The conversation centers on a privacy-first solution that offers end-to-end encryption for user images. With growing demand for secure services, this startup's unique approach emphasizes protecting personal data. Listeners will find intriguing insights into the development and potential impact of this service on the photo storage landscape.
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Quick takeaways
Ent offers a privacy-focused, encrypted photo storage service that processes data locally, ensuring user control and security.
Founder Vishnu Mohandas prioritizes user privacy and independence from venture capital, fostering a strong community-driven approach to service development.
Deep dives
Innovative Privacy-Focused Photo Backup Service
Ent offers an end-to-end encrypted photo storage solution that prioritizes user privacy while allowing for easy access across devices. Unlike many popular services that utilize user data for advertisements, Ent ensures that all processing of user photos occurs locally on devices, with only the encrypted data being synchronized across platforms. This approach not only protects user data but also enables features like face and location identification without compromising privacy. With a strong user base of over 150,000 customers and 165 million stored photos, Ent aims to provide a competitive alternative to mainstream options like Google Photos by emphasizing security and user control.
Company Philosophy and Future Plans
The founder of Ent, Vishnu Mohandas, emphasizes the significance of maintaining user privacy and has opted to bootstrap the company rather than pursuing venture capital funding. He is acutely aware of the potential consequences of shutting down, as his service carries users' precious data and requires care in management. Despite the challenges of being a startup in a competitive market, Ent aims to maintain feature parity with larger services while considering user-friendly innovations such as an anonymous login option for its Android app. The company's robust open-source community plays a crucial role in its development, with the entire team being former community members dedicated to ensuring a reliable and private user experience.
Despite Google’s intentions for its default image viewing and editing app for Android, the Photos app has, over the years, become one of the most popular photo backup services around. In fact, it was one of the most attractive offerings for years until it stopped offering unlimited storage in 2020.