WhatsApp for Android has a huge asset compared to its version for iOS. Fruit of an agreement between Meta and Google, WhatsApp backups on Android do not take up space on Drive. Or put another way, they are unlimited. This means that users can store tens of gigabytes in backups without affecting the storage limit. But it looks like it’s going to end.
For some time now, Google is greatly limiting free cloud storage. First he said goodbye to saving photos for free in Google Photos, and then free G Suite accounts will no longer be free starting in July of this year. The idea, of course, is to reduce access to free storage and for the user to subscribe to one of their One payment plans.
It seems that the next change in this regard will also be in WhatsApp. As reported in WABetainfo, the latest beta version of the app already includes certain lines of code to limit the size of backups in Drive, Until now unlimited.
Although it is not clear what the limit will be, everything seems to indicate that from now on users will have to be more cautious about what they store in WhatsApp, especially when it comes to video, which occupies the most in the copy of security.
Goodbye to unlimited space in Drive for WhatsApp?
As you can see in the screenshot above, from WABetainfo, certain code strings are already implemented that explain what will change in a future update.
In particular, everything seems to indicate that in WhatsApp they plan to introduce certain changes for backups (“Google Drive backup change”), including notifications about when Google Drive is almost full. Something that by the way today is not shown since for WhatsApp Drive it is unlimited.
In addition, certain lines of code have also been included when the limit is reached and information about when the changes take effect (“%1$s limit starts on %2$s.”).
According to these code strings, Google will continue to offer some free quota to store WhatsApp backups, but it will be a limited plan and therefore if it is exceeded the user will have to checkout. Perhaps the company will change some of One’s plans to make WhatsApp unlimited storage for paying users.
It seems that, as in the rest of Google services, the party is over.