If you are a user whatsapp When it comes to Android, we have bad news. The company announced that backups will count towards your storage limit from your Google account. This means you may run out of space when backing up your conversations.
Rumors about the end of unlimited Drive backup have been circulating for months, especially after Google limited free cloud storage. The expected day has arrived, and a post has been published on the Help Center website with additional information about this decision, as well as its effective dates.
“In the coming months, if you choose to back up your WhatsApp chats on your Android device, this will begin to count towards your Google Account storage limit,” the company notes. “If you exceed this limit, you will need to free up space in your Google account to resume backups”
Beta users They’ll be the first to get the adjustment from December 2023. Will do the rest in the first half of 2024. WhatsApp has confirmed that it will notify 30 days before the change occurs through a notification in the section Backup. The help topic does not indicate whether the warning will be displayed outside the window. Settings.
On the other hand, Google has also published a notification detailing the changes coming to WhatsApp. The technology company notes that The solution is in line with what is happening on other mobile platforms.. However, it highlights that Google accounts include 15GB of shared storage, which is three times more than what iCloud offers.
What happens to WhatsApp backups if you run out of space?
According to Google, WhatsApp is backed up on Android They will continue to work as long as you have space. in your account storage. If you exceed the 15 GB quota, you can delete files using the Google One admin panel. Remember that space is shared between services like Gmail, Photos, Drive, and your device backups.
Another alternative would be free up space directly on WhatsApp. The messaging client has a tool that organizes conversations by file size and allows view and delete those that weigh more than 5 MB. Likewise, it separates those messages that have been forwarded many times so that you can delete them individually or in groups.
If you tend to send a lot of photos, videos or voice messages, keep this in mind. everything is taken into account when calculating the storage limit. Memes, hoaxes or PDF documents also take up space, so it is recommended to regularly access this tool in the Settings menu → Storage and Data → Manage your storage.
Another trick to avoid running out of space in your Google account: delete videos from WhatsApp backups. To do this you need to go to Settings → Chats → Backup and disable the option Enable video.
Google mentioned this Workspace work and school accounts will not be affected. by standards at this time. For its part, WhatsApp has indicated that if you don’t want to back up chats to your Google account, you can transfer them via Wi-Fi Direct between two Android devices. To do this, you need to download the application on your second mobile phone, confirm your number and select the option Transfer chat history from old phone.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
