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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Exactly. I’ve been using the option of encrypted backup for quite some time now.
WhatsApp supports encrypted backups: https://faq.whatsapp.com/1246476872801203/
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.