PSA: WhatsApp Backups on Android to Count Against Google Drive Storage | PCMag

WhatsApp users on Android have enjoyed unlimited chat history backups on Google Drive since 2018. Now, the gravy train has pulled out of the station as backups will again count against a user’s Google Drive storage. The change is rolling out to beta users first in December, and “then gradually to all WhatsApp users on Android starting early next year,” Google says.WhatsApp will send a notification to users 30 days before the change happens via an alert in the Settings > Chats > Chat Backup menu. If you don’t have enough storage on your Google account, and don’t want to pay for it, WhatsApp’s only suggestion for now is to transfer your chats to another Android device using WhatsApp Chat Transfer.”If you hit your storage limit, you’ll need to free up space to resume backups by removing items you do not need,” Google says.Google offers 15GB of free storage per account across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. Google One storage plans start at $1.99 per month for 100GB and go up from there. “To help you with the transition, we will soon provide eligible users limited, one-time Google One promotions,” Google says, though it didn’t elaborate. (It’s currently offering discounts
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