Ricoh Takes On Google with Its New Photo Management Service Keenai

Ricoh wants to play with the big boys. In a surprising move for the company, Ricoh today unveiled Keenai (get it, “keen eye” but with AI?), an intelligent photo storage and management service that wants to bring all of your digital photos under one easy-to-organize umbrella.

If this idea sounds familiar, you’re on to something; the idea is basically what Google is doing with Google Photos, tagline: “All your photos organized and easy to find.”

Keenai can be described similarly and, in fact, is if you read Ricoh’s press release. The service—which is available starting today on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, and Windows Phone—is described as “the only photo service that connects all your devices and cameras, and unifies all your photos and videos for viewing and sharing on any device.”

“Consumers are struggling to keep track of all the photos and videos they capture using the different devices they own,” Toshinori Arita, senior vice president of Ricoh Innovations Corp, said in a statement. “Keenai provides a smart solution to this problem, and is designed so that non-technical people can gain control of all their photos, share them with friends and family, and feel confident that their memories are safe.”

That, in a nut shell, is the exact same nut (still in shell) that almost every tech company is trying to solve. Be it Apple, Google, EyeEm, or Ricoh, everybody seems to be intent on trying to apply the power of machine learning to photo storage and organization.

Each company has its own take on the idea, but it’s usually a combination of the same functions: storing your photos in the cloud for easy access, making them easier to find with auto-tagging, and in some cases improving your photos by automatically enhancing or showing you your “best” shots (as determined by a complex composition algorithm).

Ricoh’s Keenai stands out from the rest of the tech crowd by offering a very robust version of those first two features—cloud storage and auto-tagging—without messing with the others.

For $5 per month or $50 per year, the service will let you upload unlimited original-resolution photos (including RAW files) and up to 300 15-minute videos per month. Those photos and videos are then automatically tagged by Keenai’s “intelligent suite of applications,” accessible from anywhere, and easy to share via email or shared links.

Originals are accessible from any computer, and any of your mobile devices with Keenai installed will feature device friendly versions that won’t crush your storage capacity.

For photographers looking for a cloud backup solution that supports their RAW files, will let them access the photos from anywhere, and includes benefits like auto-tagging and robust search capabilities, Keenai is definitely worth a look.

Speaking of which, you can try the service for free for 30 days before you commit to anything. Just head over to the Keenai website where you can learn more about what Keenai can do for you and start your free trial.