Bad news for WhatsApp users

ISLAMABAD: This may come as bad news for most WhatsApp users but Google may switch some users of the mobile app to a limited storage plan.

Google currently offers unlimited storage for WhatsApp backup chats. Saving WhatsApp chat backups on Google Drive is one of the easiest and most effective ways for WhatsApp users to switch their phones and retain their old messages and chats.

Thanks to this option, the users can exclude specific media to be included in the next backup.

According to WABetaInfo, the feature is under development and will be available in a future update.

“Unfortunately, the release date is unknown but we’re carefully following the development of the feature and we will keep you updated as usual,” it said in a report.

It added that there may be a different background for the reason why WhatsApp is developing this feature.

It is important to note that WhatsApp backups do not count against the Google Drive storage quota under an agreement between the two companies.

Unfortunately, the publication said, there is a good chance that WhatsApp backups on Google Drive will partially count again and WhatsApp is planning to offer some options to manage the backup size.

“Google might stop offering unlimited storage for WhatsApp backups, but they will switch to a limited plan (2000 MB per user),” WABetainfo said.

“This new plan has not been announced yet and everything may change in the next weeks, but this is the idea around the new way to store WhatsApp backups on Google Drive,” it added.

“Note that we prefer to mark this news as a rumour seen that nothing has been publicly announced, but this is what we have learned after studying the feature and this is not to discard: Google Photos stopped offering unlimited storage some months ago”.

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