Want to keep running Picasa? You Can!

There has been some confusion in regards to Google's announcement to retire Picasa in 2016. The main issue here is that Picasa is made up of two parts: a desktop program and Picasa Web Albums.

The latter will be retired on May 1, 2016 and no longer accessible after that date. Google plans to provide users who don't want to migrate to the company's new Google Photos platform with a read-only version supporting features that Picasa Web Albums supports but Google Photos does not.

It is unclear however how long this new platform will be kept alive, and likely that Google will terminate it eventually.

As far as the desktop program is concerned, it too will be retired by Google. Retiring means that the company won't support it in any way after Marc 15, 2016.

Picasa desktop

What it does not mean however is that you cannot continue using the Picasa desktop application on your computer system to manage your photos and albums locally.

As of March 15, 2016, we will no longer be supporting the Picasa desktop application. For those who have already downloaded this—or choose to do so before this date—it will continue to work as it does today, but we will not be developing it further, and there will be no future updates.

Some features may stop working, especially those linked to Picasa Web Albums. The majority are local-features only though and they will continue working as they don't depend on the use of online storage or a Google account.

Features that may stop working eventually include ordering prints, some of the upload features, and some features that require Google account integration.

This won't make a difference for Picasa users who use the photo management software to manage their photos locally only.

I suggest you download Picasa from the official website to have local access to the installer. While Google may keep it up after it shuts it down, you may want to have a backup of it at hand should you require one.

So, if you are using the Picasa desktop application to manage your photo collection locally, then you may continue doing so after Google ends support for the program and shuts down Picasa Web Albums.

Now You: Which photo management software or app are you using, if any?