WhatsApp for Android offers a major advantage over the iOS version: users have unlimited cloud backup storage. But now Google plans to put a stop to this practice.
So far, on Android smartphones, WhatsApp automatically saves backups in Google Drive. This option is active by default and allows restoring chats and media even if the smartphone is lost, broken or changed. Due to an agreement between WhatsApp and Google, the backups do not currently count against the available cloud storage. This allows users to back up their data even if their Google Drive is already full. This could change now.
Notifications warn of backup limit
Google hasn’t made the backup limit for WhatsApp chats official yet. However, a look at the code of the current WhatsApp beta shows how the company plans to deal with the changeover. Insider “WABetaInfo” found notifications in the code that WhatsApp displays to its users in the event of a switch to a backup limit. Here is an excerpt of the planned reports:
- “Google Drive backup is changing”
- “[…] Limit starts on […]”
- “Google Drive limit is in effect”
- “Backup limit is […]”
- “Google Drive limit reached”
The notifications provide insight into how Google will handle WhatsApp backups in the future. Instead of counting them straight to the 15 gigabytes of cloud storage that Google Drive offers for free, it seems there’s extra storage just for WhatsApp. However, it is unclear how large this could be.
It’s nothing new that Google is scrapping free cloud storage
Google already scrapped unlimited cloud storage for photos and videos in the Google Photos app in June 2021. Since then, new recordings count against the Google Drive storage volume. Capping WhatsApp backups would be another move by the company to attract more paying users to the Google One cloud package.
Anyone who is already at the limit of the 15 gigabytes of free storage due to data in Gmail, Drive and Photos could be forced to act by the backup limit. Depending on how many photos and videos are stored in the WhatsApp backup, it can be several gigabytes in size. If the backup exceeds the planned limit, users must either delete files or pay for Google One. Google offers 100 gigabytes of Drive storage starting at 99 cents per month.
After all, WhatsApp now has an integrated storage manager that can be used to find and delete large files.
Are iPhone users also affected?
On the iPhone, WhatsApp does not store backups in Google Drive, but in Apple’s iCloud. Unlike Android, however, the backups have always counted against the storage volume. However, Apple only gives 5 gigabytes for free – instead of 15. If the backup size exceeds the available cloud storage or if it is already full, WhatsApp cannot back up chats and media. Here, too, users must either remove photos and videos from the backup or book more iCloud storage.