I mean, makes sense to me. You’re storing your data on someone else’s servers, makes sense that it would count towards your storage quota on said servers.
Having said that, it’s really shitty that they’ve removed local backups (and that they don’t allow other third party services beyond Google Drive and Apple iCloud).
Another reason to not use WhatsApp (or to use another backup solution), I guess.
Well, that depends on context. Let’s say it makes less sense if you built your entire userbase on the back of handing off free storage for decades only to reverse course later after you’ve amassed a captive userbase in the literal billions of people.
But hey, I’m not gonna relitigate enshittification now. We all know.
FWIW, my current Whatsapp backup is 4GB, 1.5 without video backup. Google Drive gives out 20 for free, but they already made the same move regarding Gmail storage, so most of that is full. I have a paid account, but it’s a work account and my personal chat logs do not belong there. Not using whatsapp is not an option. Just this week my vet sent me text messages over it. They didn’t ask if I use it, they just assumed it because, again, captive audience in the billions. Whatsapp is just how texting works here.
google drive gives out 20? I only have 15
Maybe I got grandfathered in? I don’t know, at some point obscuring their own rules became part of the dumb playbook of all these tech corpos.
Eh, I thought Google gave 15GB, not 20GB?
Also I just checked my own WhatsApp backup space, it’s just shy of 500mb with videos. Good for me I guess! I really don’t use WhatsApp that much compared to Telegram.
My free account reports 19. Like I said above, I may have grandfathered in to a different amount or it may be regional or who knows.
Having said that, it’s really shitty that they’ve removed local backups
Every day I love Swiftbackup more, indeed I have been using this solution even for WhatsApp.
Same, for the last two years.
You’re storing unencrypted data on google drive with those backups, so they scan all of your chats. Whether they just look for malware/CSAM or people manually look through your chats is something you’ll never know.
WhatsApp supports encrypted backups: https://faq.whatsapp.com/1246476872801203/
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Exactly. I’ve been using the option of encrypted backup for quite some time now.
I mourn for the poor worker who needs to look through all my dick pics
When did they remove local backups? Or is it removed for someone who has opted for Google Drive backup?
I never chose cloud option, so I have my local backup. Android by the way.
But it’s text, an entire persons message history can be stored very cheaply.
A million words is only 2MB.
Most people are expexted to text less than 10 millions words in a lifetime.
An entire persons lifetime message history is only 20MB, that’s trivial to store.
If they want to charge to save media, thats fine, but text backups should be free
Does it have an option to back up only text, without images and other media?
I don’t use WhatsApp, but my Signal backup is several gigs because of images and videos.
In WhatsApp it is possible to back up only text and images, without video. Not modular enough though
I’ve just checked. In the UK at least, you can choose to exclude videos from the backup, but not images.
WhatsApp bundles them together, that is the problem. Google does not know how to differentiate it.
Signal
I personally use Matrix, but to each their own!
It’s on my todo. Signal is an easy install for all.
Yeah whatsapp sucks, but I am tired of trying to convincing my family to switch.
Supposedly because of the EU, they are working on interoperability with other apps.
Just waiting to delete that spyware app.
Hopefully they will make it costly enough so that the people will stop using it and as a result choke MetaZucc’s AI data training and research
We can hope but it’s the standard nearly everywhere no one will leave esaily
Hopefully they will make it costly enough so that the people will stop using it and as a result choke MetaZucc’s AI data training and research
Who do you think “they” is? It’s not like Google would offer free storage for anything but maybe its own service anyway.
WhatsApp is e2e encrypted tho
The backups aren’t unless you specifically set it up which I guess most people don’t
Never saw auch a clickbait title.
the backups will count towards your 15gb free quota
Most people do not have a full google drive. This only includes a small portion of the whatsapp users who use google backups.
I have seen people having WhatsApp Backup of upwards of 5-8 GB
There’s also an option to transfer your chats to another device without backing up to Google drive, but it obviously works only as a transfer tool not as a backup.
Hope that sh*t goes bankrupt once and for all.
Narrator: no it will not, not anytime soon.
High time WhatsApp allowed backup to other cloud solutions like Dropbox/OndeDrive/others
WhatsApp chat backups on Google Drive will no longer be free and will contribute to your Google account storage usage.The new policy is already in effect for WhatsApp beta users and will be rolled out to regular users in the near future. WhatsApp backups will count against your Google account storage limit, which includes the free 15 GB of storage provided with every Google account. Users will receive a WhatsApp notification or email from Google approximately one month before their backup situation changes. To continue backing up your GB WhatsApp Download chats, you may need to free up space in your Google account by deleting unnecessary files or consider upgrading your storage through a Google One subscription.
Why are people saying local backups are gone?
It does have local backup but I couldn’t find how to restore from local backup.
How do you make a local one?
The Android app has an option in settings, chats, and chat backup. I don’t see how to make it take a local backup but apparently it has one already recently.
Local chat backups on signal are soo convenient and to the point.
