WhatsApp users will soon begin paying for storage space after the company announced that it is working on an update that will see it stop offering unlimited storage spaces for chat backups.
The Meta-owned social media platform noted that the new update, which is already in progress, will offer limited storage quota through the Google Play Beta Program.
Notably, this will mean that WhatsApp users with android phones will have 15GB free google storage quota.
As such, when this storage is full, users will be required to pay for additional Google drive space from December 2023.
“In the coming months, if you choose to back up your WhatsApp chats on an Android device, your backup will start counting toward your Google Account storage limit.
Likewise, if you go over the storage limit, you will need to free up space in your Google Account to resume backups,” WhatsApp noted in a post on its Help Centre page.
Also Read: WhatsApp Launches New Chat Feature for Photos &Videos
What this Means for Google Drive Users
This change will affect free Google accounts with only 15 GB of Drive storage. The space will be shared between Photos, Workspace apps, and WhatsApp backups.
However, Google stated that people with a Workspace subscription for work or school won’t be affected by this change.
In addition, considering that users share several petabytes of messages and media every day, offering billions of users’ free storage spaces had not been sustainable for the messaging platform.
Google and WhatsApp decided to make backups free in 2018, after users complained that the file ate into the free storage Google provided.
Also Read: Google to Delete Millions of Users Emails and Photos
Subsequently, it allowed users to back up their WhatsApp chat history and media and in case a person lost their phone or switched to a new one, their chat history remained safe.
WhatsApp Usage Across the World
WhatsApp messenger is used by billions across the world and is a go to app for people to share messages, media, and information.
At the moment, WhatsApp allows users to schedule backups to the cloud and even select the backup frequency.
Also, on Android, users can back up chats and media to their phone’s memory or, depending on their phone’s settings, they can back up to Google Drive.
On the other hand, on iPhone, users can back up chats and media to iCloud.
Note, to successfully restore a backup, you need to use the same phone number and Google, or iCloud account used to create the backup.
