WhatsApp users on Android devices: You may soon lose this big storage advantage – Times of India

Android users, you may soon lose unlimited storage on Google Drive to save your chats and media. There have been reports that WhatsApp on Android may lose its free Google backups. Now, new screenshots have surfaced on WhatsApp beta for Android that shows that the company is actively working on the backup tool feature. WABetaInfo spotted the new import option in the latest beta release of WhatsApp for Android v2.22.13.11. Since the feature is still in the works, so the backup tool is not fully functional now
What will the new backup tool mean for Android users
Chat history backups in WhatsApp are currently not counted as a part of the Google Drive storage, but this may change once the company starts rolling out the new feature. Presently, when a user sets up WhatsApp, it prompts him to import a backup from the Google account linked to the device. There’s no option to import a local backup. All WhatsApp data of Android users are by default saved on Google Drive linked to the account. WhatsApp backups are tied to the phone number and Google account they are created on. This will change once the new import/export tool in WhatsApp on Android comes.

While this allows users the advantage that WhatsApp does not take storage on their device, it also means that if they do not back up their WhatsApp messages to Google Drive, they cannot move them to another device. This can also become a problem if one ever loses access to the account to which WhatsApp chat history has been backed up. Switching devices on a slow Wi-Fi connection too is not easy in such cases. All these issues may be resolved with this tool. But yes, Android users will no longer get unlimited space for their WhatsApp chats and media.
Why WhatsApp may be bringing this tool
The reason WhatsApp is offering this tool is not clear so far. However, the most obvious is that Google may no longer be wanting to offer unlimited storage to WhatsApp users on Android. In June last year, Google stopped offering unlimited storage with Google Photos as well. Now users each Google account offers 15GB of free storage, which is shared across Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. To add to their storage quota, users can purchase a Google One membership.

What about iPhone users
WhatsApp chats of Apple iPhone users have always been saved locally on the device. The backups get stored on iCloud backup. iPhone users do not get unlimited storage on WhatsApp. “If the amount of available storage on your device reaches critically low levels, WhatsApp might not be able to function properly. If this happens, WhatsApp might prompt you to free up space to continue using the app,” WhatsApp warns iPhone users on its FAQ page.