Bad news for WhatsApp users on Android! While until now you could save your conversations for free with no storage limit, Google has decided to introduce a quota…
Normally, WhatsApp offers Android users free chat backups to Google Drive, meaning it doesn’t keep a copy of your messages online – as is the case with Messenger. Instead, the service uses a backup system at Google on Android, or iCloud for iPhones. This is why, when you change your phone, you lose all your conversations. But this beautiful school will soon be gone! The Internet giant announced in a statement that he now intends to impose restrictions. From December 2023, with a deployment planned until the beginning of 2024, the WhatsApp application on Android will be updated so that backups are taken into account in the cloud storage limit of your Google account. In other words, quotas will be imposed, otherwise we will have to go to the cash register. In this way, Google aligns with the storage policies in force on iPhone.
Paid WhatsApp backups: 15 GB maximum
For users of free Google storage accounts, the cap will be 15 GB. But this envelope also includes, in addition to WhatsApp, data from a series of Google services, including Gmail and Google Photos. Suffice to say that it will empty very quickly… In this case, several options will be available to the user: adjust the backup parameters, reduce the data volume or consider subscribing to a paid Google One subscription: Prices range from €1.99 to €9.99 per month for 100GB to 2TB of storage, while offering other benefits, like a VPN for multiple devices, additional Google Photos editing features, monitoring of your data on the Dark Web and a helpline to contact experts. Note that abandoning cloud backups can be a free solution, but you then take the risk of losing all your data if the device is stolen, misplaced or broken.
If you wish, it is possible to delete WhatsApp data by hand, to reduce the size of the backup. Here are the steps to follow :
► Launch the WhatsApp application on your smartphone.
► Once on the messaging home page, go to the settingsby tapping your profile photo at the top right.
► A new page appears. Press on Discussions.
► A new page appears. Press on Saving chatsdown.
► A new page opens. Go to the party Back up to Google Drive and choose Never in the drop-down menu.
► You will then see all the media and discussions that weigh the most in your history. You just have to choose which ones you want to delete. And voila !