In a bid to challenge the dominance of big tech companies in the photo backup space, former Google employee Vishnu Mohandas has launched Ente, a private photo backup service that prioritizes user privacy with end-to-end encryption. Ente, which means "Mine" in Malayalam, offers a secure alternative to popular services like Google Photos, which stopped offering unlimited storage in 2020.

Mohandas, who was motivated to create Ente due to Google's privacy practices, has designed the service to store photos at three different locations for better reliability and access. The open-source nature of the project allows anyone to inspect the code or even spin up their own server to store their pictures securely. This approach is a significant departure from the data collection practices of big tech companies, which often use user data for targeted advertising.

Ente's user-facing features are processed on-device, meaning that the service cannot access users' photos at all. The processing for features like identifying faces and locations, creating themes, and curating memories is done locally, and the processed information is synced with other devices using end-to-end encryption. Users can also search for photos using natural language, such as "beach sunsets in India."

The service offers a web client as well as Android, iOS, and desktop apps, and comes with 10GB of free storage. Users can pay for plans starting from $9.99 per month for 1TB of storage, and can share one account with five people. Despite being bootstrapped, Ente claims to have over 150,000 registered customers who have collectively stored over 165 million photos on the app.

Mohandas has stated that the company has no ambitions to seek out venture capital, citing the high cost of shutting down a service like Ente and the potential impact on customers. Instead, the company is focused on building a strong open-source community, with all 12 employees previously part of the community. Ente also offers dedicated support for folks who want to self-host the app.

In terms of future plans, Mohandas is considering releasing an Android app that doesn't require users to log in and offers photo categorization features locally. This move could further differentiate Ente from its competitors and appeal to users who value privacy and security. As the demand for private and secure photo backup services continues to grow, Ente is well-positioned to capitalize on this trend.

The launch of Ente highlights the growing concern among users about the privacy practices of big tech companies. As users become more aware of the risks associated with data collection and storage, services like Ente are likely to gain traction. With its focus on end-to-end encryption and user privacy, Ente is poised to become a major player in the photo backup space.