Google is now increasingly tightening its reins on the storage that it offers all Gmail users. The company could soon stop the “unlimited” backup of WhatsApp chats. Anticipating the restrictions, Facebook seems to be developing a new Backup Size Manager feature.
WhatsApp users may soon be facing the end of an unlimited chat backups facility in Google Drive. The search giant could force users to manage the chat backup within a limited storage quota.
Google to end “unlimited” storage for WhatsApp Backup?
WhatsApp users have had the privilege to back up their chat history on Google Drive for quite some time now. As every Android smartphone and even Apple iPhone can sync to a Gmail account, this facility helped users to access or retrieve their chat history when they switched from an old device to a new one.
Needless to mention, WhatsApp and Google allowed the former’s users to store anything and everything, including text chats, audio clips, photos, and videos. There was no restriction as there was no fixed quota.
Whatsapp likely to end unlimited chat history multimedia backup on google drive
WhatsApp is constantly coming up with new featureshttps://t.co/e6Tz3ZNmo0— Lokmat Times (@LokmatNewsEng) October 13, 2021
Incidentally, WhatsApp backups currently do not count against the Google Drive storage quota. This is despite the fact that Google currently allows every Gmail user to have 15GB of free storage. There are bigger storage plans, but they need a monthly subscription plan to access.
There’s little doubt that WhatsApp backups can get big pretty quickly. Hence, it is concerning that Google might soon stop offering free, unlimited storage space for WhatsApp backups on Google Drive.
Now, a report has emerged that #WhatsApp users may lose the privilege to store old chat history and multimedia content on cloud storage. https://t.co/O8uj3foVDf
— Deccan Herald (@DeccanHerald) October 13, 2021
WhatsApp feature tracker WaBetaInfo has discovered telltale signs that Google may stop offering unlimited storage for WhatsApp backups. The search giant could, in the near future, inform WhatsApp users about the restriction.
As per the new report, Google might offer just 2000 MB, or just about 2GB of free space, for WhatsApp Backups. If the WhatsApp Chat backup exceeds 2GB, it would count against the user’s Drive quota. For example, if a WhatsApp Backup is 3GB, Google would count 1GB against the 15GB.
Facebook working on Backup Size Manager feature that allows excluding multimedia from WhatsApp Backup:
It appears Facebook, the current owner of WhatsApp, is well aware of the upcoming changes to the storage space privileges of WhatsApp users on Google Drive. Hence, the company is reportedly developing a Backup Size Manager feature.
WhatsApp has just submitted a new update through the Google Play Beta Program, bringing the version up to 2.21.21.7. Where the user can manage the backup size#WhatsApp #technology pic.twitter.com/Xf5gViqjOn
— Nour_tech (@Nour_tech1) October 13, 2021
The new feature could help WhatsApp users reduce the size of the WhatsApp Backup. Reports indicate the Backup Size Manager feature would make it easy for WhatsApp users to choose what they want to exclude.
WhatsApp users could include or exclude photos, audio, videos, documents, and other media in their WhatsApp chat backup. Interestingly, WhatsApp Backup had limited storage space on Google Drive. However, this changed back in 2018, after a partnership was formed.
WhatsApp announced that it’s now rolling out an extra, optional layer of security meant to protect backups stored on two specific services with end-to-end encryption: Google Drive and iCloud. https://t.co/ShpqHwyU9h
— PhoneArena (@PhoneArena) October 14, 2021
Facebook recently indicated that it is working on End-To-End Encryption for WhatsApp Backup. This would mean none of the companies, including Facebook, WhatsApp, and even Google or Apple would be able to read the same.
Needless to mention, End-to-End Encryption could be one of the reasons Google is ending the unlimited storage for WhatsApp backup, suggest some experts.