Remember this PSA? WhatsApp released it some time ago, which we covered in mid-November, though rumors about this change have been circulating for nearly two years.
Now, it’s becoming a reality, as users participating in WhatsApp’s beta testing program are reporting that their chat and media backups are now being counted towards their Google Drive storage limit.
For users on the free tier, that means a total of 15GB, which is shared across Google Drive, Google Photos, and Gmail.
This is similar to what WhatsApp users on iPhone and iOS have been experiencing for years—with the main difference being that the free cloud storage tier on iOS is limited to 5GB, compared to Google’s 15GB.
Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company, plans to implement this backup storage change for all Android users in the first half of 2024.
Users will receive a 30-day notice before the change is enforced, which will appear as a banner in the app’s Chat Backup settings.
For those who prefer not to have WhatsApp-related data consuming their Google Drive space, there are alternative options:
- You can perform local backups and use the built-in WhatsApp Chat Transfer tool to migrate your data seamlessly to a new device.
- Alternatively, you can be more space-efficient by backing up only text messages and excluding media files.
