WhatsApp has announced that backup storage for old chats, photos, and videos will no longer be free for some users.
The global messaging app has revealed that from December, messages and media backups on Android phones will now count towards the Google account cloud storage limit.
As personal Google Accounts come with 15GB of free storage - which is distributed across Gmail, Google Photos, and Google Drive - users may be compelled to pay for extra storage space for all the photos, videos, and audio stored from WhatsApp.
The change marks a U-turn in policy from 2018 when backups stopped taking up Google Drive storage.
In a statement, a Google community manager shared more details about the change, writing: "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."
The app said the change will come to WhatsApp Beta users next month, before arriving to all of its Android users in the first half of 2024. The notification will be in the form of a banner in "Settings > Chat > Chat backup".
"WhatsApp backups on Android will continue to work, as long as you have available space within your Google Account storage. If you hit your storage limit, you’ll need to free up space to resume backups by removing items you do not need," they added.
Of course, Google didn't forget to take a thinly veiled jab at their rival Apple by stating: "If you choose to enable WhatsApp backups on Android, personal Google Accounts come with 15GB of storage at no charge - 3X more than most mobile platforms - that's shared across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos."
Of the 3 billion people using the hugely popular app, approximately 73 percent access the app on Android, according to The Independent.
Furthermore, there are numerous price options for more storage, with the most affordable monthly plan for 100GB of data starting at $1.99.
However, if you don’t want to use your Google account for backups, then there's an option to use the WhatsApp Chat Transfer when moving to a new Android device.
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