WhatsApp backups will not consume Google Drive storage space

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging platforms across the world. The app is bringing many new features to enhance the user experience. In one such attempt, the Facebook-owned messaging platform will no longer occupy space on Google Drive for the backups of multimedia files.

For most users, WhatsApp consumes a lot of storage with piles of images and videos being shared by individuals and groups. These will be stored on their Google Drive as backups. However, the limit of free Google Drive space is 15GB that will be easily occupied by the WhatsApp backups.

Free storage for WhatsApp backup

To make it easier for users, WhatsApp and Google have teamed up to provide free storage space for the backup files. This partnership will be effective from November 12. To get this free Google Drive storage space, it is suggested that users have to manually backup the WhatsApp data before the specified date that is November 12.

There is a catch

If the WhatsApp backup files aren't updated for more than a year, then the same will be automatically removed from the cloud storage platform of Google. At a time when Facebook is looking for ways to generate revenue from the messaging platform, it is good to see that the company is offering free storage space for data backups.

The other notable thing is that the WhatsApp backups on Google Drive will not have end-to-end encryption as the WhatsApp messages.

WhatsApp businesses will soon be charged for sending their marketing and customer service messages. They will be charged a fixed price for the confirmed delivery and the price will vary from 0.5 cents to 9 cents per message. This cost will vary based on the country.

Yet another useful feature

As mentioned above, the messaging platform has been introducing many useful features in the recent times. Recently, the app rolled out the Media Visibility feature for users to keep the received photos and videos private. Initially, it was rolled out as a generic feature for all the chats. Later, the same feature was improved by letting users choose if they want to have the photos and videos they received via specific WhatsApp chats or groups displayed in the gallery or not.