For WhatsApp users on Android, significant changes are on the horizon regarding the storage space dedicated to backups. According to the official announcement, starting from December, chat and media backups will no longer be free and unlimited in the Google account’s cloud storage.

This means that, starting next month, the content of past WhatsApp conversations will impact the amount of available Google cloud storage, incurring additional costs for larger quantities. This change represents a departure from the current practice where there were no additional costs associated with this feature.

The introduction of this new policy will occur gradually, initially involving a limited number of users by the end of the year and subsequently extending to all Android users.

The 2018 collaboration between Google and WhatsApp, which provided free space for chat backups, will be revisited with this change. Within the app settings, a notice will appear, alerting users to the remaining days before the change takes effect.

From 2024 onwards, WhatsApp will implement a change that will somewhat revert the situation to how it was before 2018. During that time, chat backups did not impact the cloud space dedicated to users.

With this change, it will still be possible to accumulate data in the Google account, but if the free storage limit is reached, it will be necessary to make space by deleting non-essential items or opting for a Google One paid plan.

Google One offers 15 GB of free space, but for additional space, you can choose from paid plans, with rates starting from $1.99 per month for 100 GB or $19.99 annually for the same amount.

Users are encouraged to take precautions by deleting unnecessary items and carefully monitoring the download of media files, especially considering recent platform introductions, such as sending high-resolution files or managing multiple accounts on the same device. It might be helpful to transfer chat history to another device in anticipation of these new rules.