Unlimited WhatsApp backups on Google Drive could soon end, shows report – The Indian Express

WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps for users in India, and many rely on Google Drive to backup their chats from the messaging service. However, not many of us know that WhatsApp backups to Google Drive do count against the storage space on your Google account. But all of this could soon change.

The latest report comes from WABetaInfo, which states that WhatsApp chats will also count against Google Drive storage in the future for Android users. If users are running short of space, they might be prompted to opt for a paid Google One plan. Keep in mind that on iOS, WhatsApp chats are backed up to iCloud. Apple only give 5GB free storage space on iCloud.

Google implemented a similar change for Photos in 2021, where these photos and videos uploading via Google Photos count against the free storage as well. Typically, Google offers 15GB of free storage to users to be used across Gmail, Photos, Google Drive, etc.

According to the report, the feature is still under development. The new feature would allow users to manage their WhatsApp chats when backing up on Google Drive and let the user could exclude certain message types in order to save space on Google Drive.

The report has also shared string code that showcases what the feature will look like when it rolls out. A notification saying Google Drive backup is changing will likely appear in the future. Users will get notifications when their Google Drive is almost full and they are trying to backup Google chats as well.

The report adds that while Google will still offer a certain quota to store WhatsApp backups for free, it will be a limited plan. It is not clear how much free storage will be offered. Our guess is that Google will not be too generous on this front.

For users in India, who are predominantly on Android and use Drive to backup WhatsApp chats, this will come as bad news, especially for those on free Google accounts. Thats because once the policy changes, WhatsApp chats could start taking up a significant amount of space on ones Google account and 15GB will be limiting, if one has to spread it across photos, Gmails, docs and WhatsApp backups.

Users will have to either sign up for a paid version of Google One or reduce the content which is being backed up. This also explains why WhatsApp would introduce a feature to let users skip backup for some types of messages such as media content given they are resource heavy and take up more space.

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Unlimited WhatsApp backups on Google Drive could soon end, shows report - The Indian Express