WhatsApp: Backups won’t take up space, will be deleted if not updated

Founded in 2009 and purchased by Facebook in 2014, WhatsApp said that at the beginning of the year it had more than 1.5 billion users who exchanged 65 billion messages per day. — AFP Relaxnewsa

Not backing up your WhatsApp regularly? Better get in the habit before Google Drive deletes your backup. 

According to WhatsApp, backups by Android users to Google Drive that haven't been updated in more than one year will be automatically removed from Google Drive. 

The auto-delete feature takes effect from Nov 12 so WhatsApp recommends users to manually back up their data before then to avoid losing their backups.

On the bright side, starting Nov 12, WhatsApp backups will also no longer take up space on the user's Cloud storage as it will not be counted towards the Google Drive storage quota. 

“You can back up your chats and media to Google Drive, so if you change Android phones or get a new one, your chats and media are transferable,” explains WhatsApp.

The messenger service also recommends that users connect their phone to WiFi prior to backing up chats, as backup files can vary in size and consume mobile data, causing additional charges. 

The minimum requirements to use Google Drive backup include having a Google account activated on the phone, Google Play services installed and enough free space on the phone to create the backup.

WhatsApp added a disclaimer that media and messages will not be protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption while backed up in Google Drive.

In Chat Backup settings, users can set data to be backup to Google Drive either manually, daily, weekly, monthly, or never at all.