Here’s What You Need to Know About WhatsApp Chats and Photos Being Backed Up to Google Storage

WhatsApp users are finally ending their free storage backup in the messaging app. In fact, if you have used the beta version of WhatsApp, you will notice that the changes have already taken effect. The latest update means that all WhatsApp users will soon have to manage their WhatsApp backup data or be prepared to pay for Google Drive storage.

Earlier this year we told you about WhatsApp notifying users of upcoming storage changes to everyone, and now we can see the amount of storage data backed up on your Google account.

WhatsApp backups to Google Drive storage: How it works

WhatsApp users can go to their account settings and chat backups where they can see how many megabytes or gigabytes of WhatsApp data has been backed up to their cloud account. Just above that, you’ll see the message “Back up chats and media to your Google account storage. You can restore them to your new phone after you download WhatsApp.” WhatsApp Android beta version 2.24.3.21 shows these new changes for backup storage.

You can even go to the managed storage section of the Google Drive app to see what data is taking up space in your cloud storage. There you’ll notice Gmail, Google Photos and Drive, which mention the amount of space they use in the cloud, but you’ll also see “other” and that’s where your WhatsApp data is backed up.

As we stated earlier, neither WhatsApp nor Google have given a reason for these changes, but it is likely that the latter now feels that due to the number of people using WhatsApp, free cloud storage is not possible.

However, it’s important to note that users can continue to back up their data at no additional cost as long as they have free storage space within the 15GB of free cloud storage included in their Google account or any additional storage space, such as through Google One.

Google has pushed other users to sign up for paid services that give them 100GB of cloud storage and other benefits. Your plans have up to 2TB, but that’s usually preferred by people who use cloud storage extensively. Will the new changes force people to buy cloud storage or will they prefer to delete data from their account? We will know when the public version is released in the coming weeks.