As smartphone users, we know how important backing up our data to the cloud can be, especially when moving files to a new phone. Google has allowed WhatsApp users on Android to backup unlimited data to a dedicated directory in the Google Drive, but that’s about to change. WhatsApp Android uers starting Q1 next year might pay to backup WhatsApp chats.
Registered Google Drive users get 15GB of free storage that allows storing data in the cloud. Initially, this complementary storage doesn’t count for WhatsApp back up, but that will soon change. According to Google, WhatsApp backups on Android will soon count towards your Google Account cloud storage. It means that if you have 2GB of WhatsApp data backed up on Google Cloud, your free storage will remain 13GB.
Paying to backup WhatsApp chats?
The new changes will arrive for Beta testers next month and will be available for stable users in Q1 2024. Once it becomes available on a stable channel, WhatsApp backups will stop once you exceed your storage limit. You will have to delete some files to free up storage or purchase extra storage via Google One. Meanwhile, you can make use of Google’s in-house storage management to organize your data better and get rid of unnecessary files to free up storage.
While we expect the changes to take full effect starting early next year, Workspace customers in education and enterprise will not be affected, at least for now. Interestingly, Google promised to offer Google One promotion to affected users so they can back up more data to the cloud at a discounted price. Meanwhile, to check your WhatsApp backup size, head to Settings>>Chats>>Cha backup on your WhatsApp app.
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