Back in 2018, WhatsApp and Google partnered to provide unlimited cloud backups on Google Drive to WhatsApp users completely free of charge. However, this is going to end. Google will now start counting WhatsApp chat backups towards the cloud storage limit for Android users.
Now that unlimited chat backups are ending, WhatsApp backups on Android will work until you have available space on your Google Account storage. Once you consume the 15GB storage of your Google account, chat backups will stop. You will have to free up space to resume backups.
“WhatsApp backups on Android will continue to work, as long as you have available space within your Google Account storage. If you hit your storage limit, you’ll need to free up space to resume backups by removing items you do not need,” says Google.
If you hit the 15GB limit of Google cloud storage, you will have to remove large files or photos to clear space or purchase the Google One subscription.
WhatsApp confirmed that the change will start rolling out to Beta users starting in December 2023. Later, it will rolled out to all users via a stable version starting early 2024.
iPhone users already face cloud storage limitations on iCloud. As soon as they hit the iCloud storage limit, their chat backup stops working. Now Android users will also have to manage their cloud storage in the same way iPhone users do.
