WhatsApp users will finally put an end to their free storage backups on the messaging app. In fact, if you have been using the beta version of WhatsApp you will notice the changes have already come into effect. The latest update means all WhatsApp users will soon have to manage their WhatsApp backup data or be ready to pay for Google Drive storage.
Earlier this year we told you about WhatsApp informing users about the storage changes coming for everyone and now we are seeing the backed up storage counting in your Google account.
WhatsApp Backups In Google Drive Storage: How It Works
WhatsApp users can go to settings and chat backups of their account where they can see the MB or GB of WhatsApp data backed up to their cloud account. Right above that you will see this message, “Back up your chats and media to your Google account’s storage. You can restore them on a new phone after you download WhatsApp on it.” The Android beta version 2.24.3.21 of WhatsApp is showing these new changes for backed up storage.
You can even go to the managed storage section of Google Drive app to see what data is taking space in your cloud storage. Over there you will notice Gmail, Google Photos and Drive mentioned with the amount of space they have occupied on the cloud but you also see ‘other’ written and that is where your WhatsApp data is backed up.
Like we said before, WhatsApp or Google haven’t given the reason for these changes but it is likely that the latter now feels that with the number of people using WhatsApp, free cloud storage is not feasible.
However, it’s important to note that users can continue backing up their data without extra charges, as long as they have available storage within the 15GB of free cloud storage included with their Google Account or any additional purchased storage, such as through Google One.
Google has been pushing other users to sign up for its paid services, which allows them 100GB of cloud storage and other benefits. You have plans going up as high as 2TB but that is usually preferred by people who have extensive use for cloud storage. Will the new changes force people to buy cloud storage or will they prefer to remove data from their account? We’ll know once the public version is rolled out in the coming weeks.
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