Google may soon stop unlimited storage for WhatsApp chat backups

If this happens, WhatsApp will be the second platform after Google Photos to stop offering unlimited storage space to its users.

e, WhatsApp reportedly is working on a feature called Manage Backup Size. (Pixabay)

Google, as most Android users would know, offers unlimited storage space to WhatsApp users for their chat backups as of now. But that is about to change. A new report indicates that Google might soon start taking into account some of the storage space that WhatsApp users use for their chat backups.

According to a report by WABetaInfo, it is possible that Google may soon start counting the space occupied by WhatsApp backups on Google Drive at least partially. The blog site reported that the tech giant might stop offering unlimited storage for WhatsApp backups. As a part of this change, the company will offer a limited plan -- 2000 MB or 2GB per user -- for WhatsApp users for their chat backups.

“This new plan has not been announced yet and everything may change in the next weeks, but this is the idea around the new way to store WhatsApp backups on Google Drive,” the blog site reported.

If this happens, WhatsApp will be the second platform after Google Photos to stop offering unlimited storage space to its users.

To counter this change, WhatsApp reportedly is working on a feature called Manage Backup Size. This feature when released will give users the option to manage the size of their chat backups. Screenshots shared by the blog site show that users will get the option to include or exclude elements such as Photos, Audio, Videos, Documents and other media files in chat backups.

“WhatsApp is also working on a new section where the user can manage the backup size. Thanks to this section, the user can exclude specific media to be included in the next backup. The feature is under development and it will be available in a future update,” the blog site added.

This feature is available in WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.21.21.7. It is likely to be available in the company's main app when the company is done developing the app.