Dropbox can now automatically backup your camera roll at the touch of a button

An update to the Dropbox for Android client issued yesterday allows users to automatically save every photograph taken with a phone’s camera to their Dropbox in full resolution. A new setting to Turn on Camera Upload also lets you upload existing photos and videos over wireless or both wireless and cellular networks.

In case of the latter, Dropbox will not upload large videos using a data plan; although, you can override the preference in settings. Your photos and clips save in a private folder on your Dropbox called Camera Uploads. The company said people wishing to test the new feature would get an extra 3GB of free storage for a total of 5GB.

It is important to note that you will not get an extra 3GB at once but rather your storage limit will gradually increase as photos and videos upload with the new feature. For example, your first automatic upload scores 500MB of free extra storage. The company is also testing new Windows and Mac clients that can also automatically upload photos found on digital cameras, smartphones, tablets, or SD card connected to your machine.

Once your photos and videos automatically upload to Dropbox, you will be able to view them using a new web interface. The updated Dropbox for Android client is now available for download in Android Market. The company also confirmed iOS users will soon get the Camera Upload feature through a forthcoming update.

It is worth mentioning that Google had a similar feature in the Google+ for Android client, and Apple tackled this issue with Photo Stream—an iCloud feature that automatically syncs photos (but not videos) across Macs, PCs and iOS devices.