WhatsApp for Android will no longer have unlimited backup on Google Drive

Google Drive allows WhatsApp backups for Android to be stored in the cloud without any limit. But this is about to change: it seems that the messenger’s backups will now count in the storage quota of google’s service, just as it did with Google Photos. The information was revealed by WABetaInfo on Saturday (29).

Unlimited storage is a benefit granted to Android users in 2018. Unlike iCloud, files with chat history, media, and the like of the messenger are saved in Google Drive without impacting the amount of platform storage. That is, it is possible to save them unlimitedly, without compromising the space that would be allocated to other types of files.

But it seems the benefit is nearing its end. The site found traces in the message app code that imply that the service will have a limit. These are notifications with information such as “Google Drive backup is changing” and “The Google Drive limit has been reached” (both in free translation), for example.

The messenger team was still preparing other news for the feature tool. In October, the same site found options for managing the backup size by selecting whether the file would be sent to the cloud with photos, videos, and the like. The traces gave the faces in the Android application.

It is not yet known for sure how and when this change will be implemented to WhatsApp users. However, it’s important to remember that Google ended the backup of unlimited google photos and images in mid-2021. Instead, users had to sign up for Google One plans if the amount of files exceeds the 15 GB of space offered for free.