Amazon Prime customers now get unlimited cloud storage for photos

When it comes to backing up your photo library and life's most precious memories, it's good to have multiple options. Amazon's now giving its Prime subscribers another one: the company has announced that effective immediately, Prime customers will receive unlimited cloud storage for their photo backups. Any images you've already uploaded will no longer count against your cloud storage limit. Before now, only Fire Phone owners have had the benefit of unlimited photo storage.

Amazon calls this latest membership perk Prime Photos, and describes it as a simple, secure destination for your entire photo library. Once they've been uploaded to the cloud, your shots can be viewed across iOS, Android, the web, and of course Amazon's own Fire devices. There are multiple ways to browse your library on the TV, as well: Amazon's Fire TV (and new Fire TV Stick) can access Prime Photos, as can apps for the PlayStation 4, PS3, and select smart TVs from Samsung and LG.

Amazon very carefully only mentions the word "photos" in its press release, so it doesn't seem as though videos taken with your iPhone or Android device will be eligible for the unlimited space. But the company does note that photos are preserved in their original, full resolution. (And yes, RAW files are supported.) And if you're worried about reliability, there are few cloud platforms that have proven more steady and secure than Amazon's.

But like we said, it's good to have your photos in more than one place, and cloud storage is pretty cheap (or free) almost anywhere you look these days. Google is happy to store your whole collection for free, and Flickr is still giving users 1TB of storage at no cost. Microsoft's OneDrive is another good choice — especially if you're an Office365 subscriber, and there's also Dropbox / Carousel. If you're an iPhone owner, remember that Apple now backs up plenty of photos and charges pretty reasonable rates in case you need more storage. In 2014, losing your entire photo library should be almost impossible if you're smart about it.