• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, February 9, 2015

Google has acquired Odysee, and the platform team behind the app will join the group of developers at Google+. The photo backup and sharing app allowed iOS and Android app users to automatically back up their photos and videos to their home computer or to a cloud server from their smartphones.

The acquisition fuels rumors that Google will separate its photo services from Google+ to offer as stand-alone apps, perhaps with help from Odysee's team. In a note on the company's Web site, the team explains it will continue to work on building out tools, but the features will support Google+. On the company's Web site, the Odysee team thanks its users. "To help you with the transition, the Odysee service will continue till Feb 23rd and soon after that all your photos and videos will be available as a downloadable archive," per the company's Web site.

Adding options to save photos offline and better control of how people share pictures are logical additions that would help differentiate Google Photos from other competing photo services, per reports. The space continues to get a bit crowded with players like Facebook's Instagram, Yahoo’s Flickr, and Dropbox vying for attention.