WhatsApp backups will lose unlimited Google Drive storage

Google has been taking steps to get people to pay for its services in recent years. Google Photos is one of the best examples of that, with the search giant ending free unlimited photo and video backup back in June 2021. Recently, Google also started blocking ad blockers on YouTube so that viewers either sign up for a premium subscription or modify their ad blocker to allow ads on YouTube.

Next month, Google is taking an axe to the storage space allowed for WhatsApp backups stored on Google Drive. WhatsApp backups will start counting toward your Google Account cloud storage limit, which will essentially mean that a lot of WhatsApp users will have to sign up for Google's premium cloud storage plans as it offers just 15GB storage for free, with that 15GB shared across Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos.

WhatsApp currently has Google Drive as the only option for cloud backups on Android, so the storage limit will not sit well with everyone, especially those who don't delete images, videos, and other media from their WhatsApp chats and conversations. One could get around the limitation by creating a new Google account just for WhatsApp backups, but even that might not be enough for some users.

The free unlimited Drive storage will end in December for users of the WhatsApp beta app and in early 2024 for everyone else, and it will be interesting to see if WhatsApp will introduce alternatives to Google Drive, like tying up with other cloud services or perhaps enabling backups on Meta's servers.

Abhijeet Mishra - Editor-in-Chief

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First Samsung device: SGH-D500

Abhijeet's writing career started with guides for custom firmware for Samsung devices (including the original Galaxy S), and he moved to SamMobile in mid-2013 and worked up the ranks to Editor-in-chief. In addition to phones and mobile devices, his interests include gaming on both PC and console, PC hardware, and spending countless hours on YouTube watching videos on tech, movies, games, politics, and internet dramas.

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