> Competing cloud storage providers cannot do this[1], because Apple withholds the API for that. Of course they're saying this is for "privacy" or for "energy saving" or whatever, but the actual reason is of course to make the user experience with competing services deliberately worse, so that people choose iCloud over something else.

Which makes Google Photos so much more impressive because it's heads above iCloud in this regard. No idea how they do that, pure magic.