Everalbum
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Everalbum built the Ever photo storage app, which automatically backed up photos and videos from users' phones, freed up device storage, and let people share albums. The service ran on a freemium model: a free tier with unlimited high-quality photo storage and a paid tier, Everalbum Plus at $9.99 per month, adding unlimited full-resolution storage, HD video uploads, and priority support. The app became a chart-topper on iOS, at one point backing up more photos than any other iOS service and earning a 4.5-star rating across thousands of reviews.
02 / Everalbum FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Everalbum said the Ever service had become unsustainable because of increasing competition from Apple and Google's own photo storage products, and shut it down in August 2020. Trust had also been damaged a year earlier when an NBC News investigation revealed the company had quietly pivoted to selling facial recognition services under the Ever AI brand, repurposing users' family photos to train face-reading AI without clear disclosure. In January 2021 the FTC settled with the company, ordering it to delete the users' photos, videos, and the AI models built from them.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Everalbum was founded in San Francisco, building the Ever photo backup app.
- Premium tier
The company launched Everalbum Plus, a $9.99-per-month premium tier with unlimited full-resolution storage, which pushed the app into the top-grossing charts for iOS productivity apps.
- Android launch and growth
Everalbum brought the app to Android; it claimed its users had backed up more photos in the previous 90 days than any other iOS service, with 5,300 terabytes of phone storage freed.
- Facial recognition pivot exposed
An NBC News investigation revealed Everalbum had pivoted to selling facial recognition services (as Ever AI/Paravision) to private companies, law enforcement, and the military, repurposing users' photos to train face-reading AI.
- Shutdown
Ever shut down on August 31, 2020, citing unsustainable competition from Apple and Google photo products; all customer photos and videos were deleted from its servers.
- FTC settlement
The FTC settled with Everalbum, ordering deletion of users' photos, videos, and the facial-recognition AI models built from them.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Ran a freemium model: free high-quality photo storage plus a $9.99-per-month Everalbum Plus tier.
- 02
Shut down the Ever service on August 31, 2020 and deleted all customer photos and videos from its servers.
- 03
Under a January 2021 FTC settlement, the company had to delete users' data and the AI models derived from their facial images.