If you are backing up your WhatsApp correspondence to Google Drive on Android, it would be a good idea to start checking the Drive storage space you have.
WhatsApp and Google announced in 2018 that when you back up your WhatsApp chat history to GooglDrive, these backups will not be included in your storage quota. And this announcement remains valid to this day. But starting in December 2023, if you’re a WhatsApp beta user, backups the messaging app makes to Drive will be deducted from your Google account’s cloud storage quota. If you’re not using the beta version of the app, this change won’t affect you until at least mid-next year. However, it seems that the stable WhatsApp application will also be affected by this situation.
Users with a personal Google account; It has 15 GB of free cloud storage shared between Gmail, Drive and Photos. In the announcement made by Google, it was stated that this is “three times more than most mobile platforms”. For example, when we look at Apple’s iCloud service, we see that it comes with only 5 GB of space. Still, it’s pretty easy to reach or exceed 15GB, depending on the number of photos and files you’ve backed up and uploaded.
Google also provided a link to this service, stating that you can use storage management tools to make it easier to remove large files or photos you no longer need. You can also delete items from within WhatsApp to stop them from being included in your next backup. Additionally, users who wish can purchase extra storage space with Google One for a relatively small fee. Still, you can wait to see what discount will be offered before signing up for the subscription service, as the company says it will soon be offering “limited, one-time Google One promotions” to eligible users.
Note that this change will only be affected if you have backed up your chat history using your personal account. If you have a Workspace account through your work or another organization, you don’t have to worry about WhatsApp taking up a lot of your cloud storage.
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