WhatsApp backup data for Android devices is set to see a major change this year. Users will have all their backed-up data on the app count towards their Google Cloud storage. Over the years, backed-up data from WhatsApp on Android devices doesn’t count toward the users’ Google Cloud storage.
This is something that users of WhatsApp for Apple devices have long had to contend with. Now their Android counterparts are preparing to face the same fate as WhatsApp is making storage changes this year. This change will take place in the first half of this year and will affect all Android users of the social media app.
So if you use WhatsApp on your Android device, you can expect all your backed-up data to count towards your Google Cloud storage. This means that all media, chats, and so on that you back up on your WhatsApp account will be stored on your device’s cloud storage. So if you don’t have a Google One plan, and you’re using the free 15GB on your Google account, then you might consider upgrading your cloud storage.
A notification of this coming change will be pop-up on WhatsApp for Android users’ devices 30 days before the change goes into effect. By doing this, WhatsApp hopes to brace users up for what is to come, so they can make necessary adjustments to their backups if need be. To preserve their cloud storage, users can choose to exclude videos from their backed-up data.
To make this adjustment, you can head over to your WhatsApp settings, then to ‘Chats’ and finally ‘Chat backup.’ You can turn off the option to back up videos from here as they will be more space-consuming. In a few months, this change will arrive on WhatsApp for Android user’s devices.