Best Cloud service for video

SpookDroid

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For me, I'm also looking up a service where I can easily see thumbnails and flip through them like photo apps and browse/select videos that way.

I have amazon prime photos right now and it's like $50 / year for unlimited storage. I may try that out to see how it works since I like the interface.

Edit: Nevermind, Amazon is a no go. No way to copy / get links on a mobile device and send them.

Dropbox has a dedicated Gallery app that might be what you're looking for if you use their service. For Google, you have the Photos app or you can even do that on the Drive app.
 

Kalvin Kerns

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I don't see any way to share a link to a video on g+. When I hit Share it tries to send the actual video thru my text app, no option to send as a link.

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SpookDroid

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From the Photos app, if you select the video, then share it with the messaging app, then yeah, it will try to attach the file itself. If you want the link form there, it will only send it to people with Google+ accounts (you should see the People option on top). If you make it Public from there, it will post it to your Google+ page and you can take the link from there. Obviously this isn't the most private way to do things.

If you, however, go to the Google Drive app and navigate to your Google Photos section there, you can select the video you want and you should see a SHARE LINK option (this actually creates a Google Drive link), and you can also decide if you want to add more people with Google accounts to your file or if you'll let anyone with the link view or edit the file or even turning the link off entirely.
 

Kalvin Kerns

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From the Photos app, if you select the video, then share it with the messaging app, then yeah, it will try to attach the file itself. If you want the link form there, it will only send it to people with Google+ accounts (you should see the People option on top). If you make it Public from there, it will post it to your Google+ page and you can take the link from there. Obviously this isn't the most private way to do things.

If you, however, go to the Google Drive app and navigate to your Google Photos section there, you can select the video you want and you should see a SHARE LINK option (this actually creates a Google Drive link), and you can also decide if you want to add more people with Google accounts to your file or if you'll let anyone with the link view or edit the file or even turning the link off entirely.

Ah ok so go to photos through Drive and it will give the option to share links without me having to upload the video to Drive? Excellent. I'll try that.

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SpookDroid

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Hahaha yeah, sounds confusing... But here's a bit of their (lunatic) reasoning: if you auto-backup your photos/videos to Google+, those photos and videos are shared through Google+, so they need to be 'posted', either privately (to select users; think of it of posting to someone's wall on Facebook with privacy set to only that user and you) or publicly (which lets you then copy a link to that public post).

But Google heard users (they do that some rare times) and began showing those uploaded photos and videos also in Google Drive. Now, since Drive is file-centric and not a social media app like Google+, it has more 'proper' sharing options for FILES, like direct links to the file and not a social media post.
 

Kalvin Kerns

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Hahaha yeah, sounds confusing... But here's a bit of their (lunatic) reasoning: if you auto-backup your photos/videos to Google+, those photos and videos are shared through Google+, so they need to be 'posted', either privately (to select users; think of it of posting to someone's wall on Facebook with privacy set to only that user and you) or publicly (which lets you then copy a link to that public post).

But Google heard users (they do that some rare times) and began showing those uploaded photos and videos also in Google Drive. Now, since Drive is file-centric and not a social media app like Google+, it has more 'proper' sharing options for FILES, like direct links to the file and not a social media post.

Here's a wrench in that reasoning ... Not all the videos on g+ Photos are showing in Drive.

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DaHui623

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For what it's worth, I've found Facebook's Messenger does a pretty decent job with sending photos and video.

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Kalvin Kerns

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For what it's worth, I've found Facebook's Messenger does a pretty decent job with sending photos and video.

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Not everyone I know uses that and I'd prefer not to as well , but thank you.

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SpookDroid

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Here's a wrench in that reasoning ... Not all the videos on g+ Photos are showing in Drive.

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Are those newer or older videos? The Photos/Drive integration was said to take a while for older content, but in theory it should all be there. Any 'weird' things about the videos you're not seeing, like being too long or 2K videos maybe? Not that it should matter, I think...
 

Kalvin Kerns

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Are those newer or older videos? The Photos/Drive integration was said to take a while for older content, but in theory it should all be there. Any 'weird' things about the videos you're not seeing, like being too long or 2K videos maybe? Not that it should matter, I think...

Well the one I did over this weekend isn't on there and only one of my older ones is showing. It seems to be picking and choosing. Seems inconsistent.

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SpookDroid

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Maybe it's still building the list? I don't have many videos to test, but all of mine are showing up... Maybe there's a pesky filter somewhere? For instance, in Photos, there's the Highlights (and Googlegod knows how they pick those) and there's the ALL 'filter'...
 

Kalvin Kerns

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Maybe it's still building the list? I don't have many videos to test, but all of mine are showing up... Maybe there's a pesky filter somewhere? For instance, in Photos, there's the Highlights (and Googlegod knows how they pick those) and there's the ALL 'filter'...

Good point, let me see what I can see.

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Bradskey

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For what it's worth, I've found Facebook's Messenger does a pretty decent job with sending photos and video.

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I've done the same with Whatsapp (now owned by Facebook). Its easy to directly send audio and video files over data and the app is fairly widely used.
 

SpookDroid

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Mmm not all. I can't remember which one, but I think WeChat or Lyne let you send video files without compression (sending the actual file). And since Facebook Messenger lets you send files now, you can do that too, just not sure on the file size limits though.

As for 'normal' texting (again, SMS/MMS) yes, all multimedia messages are compressed to fit MMS protocol size constraints. For all other IM protocols (iMessage, Whatsapp, Hangouts, etc, etc, etc) it depends on what the app lets you send and how it optimizes data for mobile (which is why Whatsapp compresses video, actually, because it's core market is in countries where data caps are mostly the norm and high mobile data speeds are not as spread).
 

Bradskey

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I don't think videos sent through Whatsapp are useless just because they are more compressed or the resolution is lowered. Its a trade-off between spending a lot more time and expensive mobile data to send the original file or sending an adequate version more quickly, especially if its just something to amuse your friends and family with, and which isn't that important in the big scheme of things, and considering they might only view it on a tiny phone screen anyway. Same goes for sharing quick photos and audio recordings over these apps. Recipient can quickly get a lower quality but reasonable sense of the media you want to share.

If you really need to share the unmodified original then DropBox/OneDrive/whatever work just fine as previously discussed and are all easy to share from. The nice thing about WhatsApp, and maybe Facebook Messenger too, is that they work across all devices, unlike iMessage, and have a large install base and do not not have the same limitations of SMS/MMS. Just depends on what you want to accomplish, I use the right tool for the job.
 

Kalvin Kerns

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I seem to have gotten Drive to work decently for now and OneDrive is pretty quick and easy to use as well.

Thank you to everyone that responded with advice, much appreciated.

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