WhatsApp Will Allow Users to Manage Their Chat Backups

New feature comes as Google Drive may change storage deal

By
Cesar Cadenas
Cesar Cadenas Writer
Cesar Cadenas
Writer
  • California State University - Long Beach
Cesar Cadenas has been writing about the tech industry since 2016 on a variety of topics like cryptocurrency, video games, the latest gadgets, and much more.
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Published on October 13, 2021 04:19PM EDT
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Rich Scherr
Rich Scherr
Fact checked by Rich Scherr
  • University of Maryland Baltimore County
Rich Scherr is a seasoned technology and financial journalist who spent nearly two decades as the editor of Potomac and Bay Area Tech Wire.
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WhatsApp is working on a feature that will allow users to manage the size of their chat backups in preparation for a potential Google Drive change.

The update will come in the form of a new "Manage Backup Size" option in the Settings, providing detailed controls over what is and isn’t archived. According to the app’s developer blog, WABetaInfo, users will be able to instruct the app only to store important files, such as photos, videos, audio, and documents. WhatsApp also will provide a real-time estimate of how much storage is left in the backup.

Women in a group texting

Westend61/Getty Images

The blog post revealed the reason for this update is because Google may remove unlimited storage for WhatsApp users. Currently, users can backup their WhatsApp chats to Google Drive and not have it count against the free 15GB of storage provided. This is the result of a deal the two companies made back in 2018.

WhatsApp postulates that Google will change this deal and have user backups count on Drive again. In response, WhatsApp is creating the new feature to give users more options for backup storage.

Woman on smartphone

d3sign/Getty Images

In the past, Google has changed storage offerings that were once unlimited, such as Google Photos. WhatsApp states that nothing official has been announced, but the company will continue to move forward with this new data management option.

A release date for the update was not provided, but WABetaInfo assures it will keep users posted.

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