The social media giant, WhatsApp, is switching things up for Android users. According to a recent news report, WhatsApp users will have to sacrifice a portion of their Google Drive storage to continue backups.
The recent modifications indicate that users will soon have to choose between joining up for a Google One membership or having their WhatsApp data saved on Google Drive count against the 15GB storage limit.
Informing about the new changes in a post in November, Google wrote, “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.”
Additionally, the app will show a notice notifying users of when the changes will begin. This will appear as a banner 30 days before the implementation of the policy when users go to Settings > Chats > Chat backup.
Lastly, it is important to note that users have the option not to store their chats on Google Drive. Instead, they can transfer their chats between Android devices via the WhatsApp Chat transfer capability.
