From early 2024. WhatsApp data will start counting in your Google Drive storage. Whereas the beta WhatsApp users on Android will start seeing the changes from this month itself.
On the latest WhatsApp beta version on Android, the messages are now popping up in the chat backups section of WhatsApp settings. The new pop-up says backups on WhatsApp will start using Google Drive storage in the next few months. The message will be coming on WhatsApp beta version 2.23.26.7 on Android this week.
WhatsApp is giving people ample time to manage their chats, photos, and videos on the messaging app. WhatsApp also has a dedicated help page setup with queries and gives people a rough timeline for these changes to come into effect.
WhatsApp will also have a storage review option which will tell users how much of the storage their WhatsApp data is already using. The users need to know that they can continue backing up their data without extra charges, as long as they have available storage within the 15GB of free cloud storage included with their Google Account or any additional purchased storage, such as through Google One.
WhatsApp also informs its users in the note that they will have to start managing their WhatsApp data storage or must get ready to pay extra for Google Drive to keep all their data in place. Google Drive plans start from 100GB and if users are big on photos and videos, it might be a good idea to invest in Drive storage.
In addition to this, WhatsApp doesn’t limit its user's options and suggests that in case they don’t want to back up their chats to a Google account, users can transfer the chats between Android devices using the WhatsApp Chat Transfer tool.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)