By default, your Android smartphone automatically takes a daily backup of your device, which includes - your Android settings, Wi-Fi networks, contacts, apps, photos, passwords, and display preferences, etc. This way, when you get a new phone, you can easily restore your backup from the old phone by signing in to same Google account. However, Google recently made its premium Google One backup service available for regular Google users. So, the question is "How's it any different from the native Android Backup". Well, let me elaborate.

Android Backup vs Google One Backup

1. Setup

The underlying difference between both Google One backup and Android backup is the way you configure the backup. The Android backup is integrated within the Android settings and turned ON by default. Your Android device is backed up on a daily basis. The Android backup details can be found under System Settings > Backup. On the other hand, Google One is a separate app that you have to download from the Google Play Store (coming soon on iOS). And compared to Android backup, Google One backup isn't automatic. So every time you want to backup your Android device, you will have to hit the "Back up now" button.
In case you are a GSuite user, Google One won't work for you.
android-native-backup-vs-google-one-backup Read: How to Automatically Delete Your Entire Google Activity

2. Backup Contents

So, if both Android backup and Google One backs up your Android device, then what's the difference. Well, here's where things get interesting. The difference isn't huge. Google One can additionally backup the photos, videos, and audio files from your MMS. In case you don't use MMS or even SMS altogether, just don't bother. It wouldn't make much of a difference.
Google One Backup Android Backup
Backup Contents
  • App data
  • Call history
  • Contacts
  • Settings
  • SMS messages
  • MMS
  • App data
  • Call history
  • Contacts
  • Settings
  • SMS messages
Having said that, a few users on Reddit reported that Google One seemed to backup additional "App Data". Some users reported that apps like PocketCasts were able to retrieve data from Google One backup.

3. Additional Features

Google One provides you a unified platform to overview your Google account storage. As soon as you open the app, there's a breakdown of your 15 GB free storage amongst Google Drive, Gmail, Google Photos. If you scroll down you have the device backup name and timestamp. Moreover, Google One has a web app. It shows similar options but as of writing this article, you cannot see your Android device backup. Google-One-storage-breakdown

Summary

  • Google One doesn't automatically backup your Android device
  • Google One can additionally backup MMS
  • Google One app provides a breakdown of your Google account storage

Closing Words

After hours of scratching my head and reading around the web, I don't seem to get the intention of making Google One free to every Android user. The only thing this can do is bypass OEMs. Samsung phones seem to have their own cloud storage solution called Samsung Cloud, Xiaomi has Mi Cloud, etc. This all confuses the normal users switching from one device to the other. With Google One, backup moves out of settings to an integrated app called Google One. So, suppose, if you shifting from a Samsung device to a Pixel or Xiaomi device, Google One is the right option to go for a backup. Another scenario is shifting from an iPhone to Android. For more issues or queries, let me know in the comments below. Also Read: How to Clear Space on Google Drive