WhatsApp, the world's most popular messaging platform, will no longer provide free Google Drive storage for Android users to store their chat history, images and videos. This change means that WhatsApp data on Google Drive will soon contribute to the 15GB storage limit, prompting users to consider a paid Google One subscription as an alternative.
Whether you're on Google's free or paid cloud storage plan, Meta-owned WhatsApp was storing chat backups on your Google Drive. This uses the storage linked to the Gmail account associated with your WhatsApp, adding to the space consumed by backups from Google Photos, Gmail and other sources on your Google Drive.
To recall, late last year, WhatsApp revised its terms and conditions and mentioned that chat backups would begin counting towards a user's Google Drive storage in the first half of 2024. The announcement is coming into effect now.
“As an important heads up, WhatsApp backups on Android will soon start counting toward your Google Account cloud storage limit, similar to how WhatsApp backups are handled on other mobile platforms. This change will first start rolling out to WhatsApp Beta users starting in December 2023, then gradually to all WhatsApp users on Android starting early next year," earlier in November, Google wrote in a blog post, annoucing the new changes.
Those who wish to avoid using up their entire Google Drive storage with chat backups and not pay for premium Google One plan, they have the option to refrain from backing up WhatsApp chats to the cloud service. Instead, they can consider using the built-in WhatsApp Chat Transfer tool when shifting to a new Android phone.
Notably, last week, WhatsApp started letting users share screen during video calls. The world's most-popular messaging platform enabled the ability to share screen during WhatsApp video calls, which is a very useful addition. The company made the feature official on Friday (January 26). WhatsApp's official WhatsApp channel informed users about the feature being available in the country.