Google and WhatsApp officially announced. WhatsApp chat and media backups on Android will be included in Google account cloud storage. The change will affect beta users first.
Since 2018, WhatsApp backups did not affect Google Drive space, but this will change soon. WhatsApp chat and photo/video backups will be removed from Google Drive storage starting from December 2023.
This change will first affect users who participate in the WhatsApp Beta program and use beta versions. It will be gradually rolled out to all WhatsApp Android users starting from the first half of 2024.
The change will apply to personal Google accounts . Those who have a Google Workspace subscription through work or school will not have their storage quota deducted. Google also states that the WhatsApp backup experience on Android will be compatible with how it works on other platforms.
A warning will appear in WhatsApp Settings - Chats - Chat backup section. If users reach their storage limit, they will need to remove items they don't need to free up space to continue backups. Google offers storage management tools to quickly bulk delete large files in the Google Photos app. WhatsApp also shows items that take up too much space.
Google defines 15GB of free storage for each account.
