WhatsApp impending reforms, how to cope with it – Gobroadsheet
WhatsApp is set for huge changes in the coming months that could drastically affect how Android owners use the lauded messaging application.
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging service, surpassing that of Facebook Messenger, WeChat and Telegram.
According to Statista, a provider of market and consumer data, roughly 1.5billion people use WhatsApp every month as of July 2018.
This compares to just 1.3 billion for Facebook Messenger and 1.04 billion for WeChat for the same period.
WhatsApp allows users to easily switch between devices and maintain their chats, media and other items by harnessing a backup feature.
The Facebook-owned chat client is renowned for its easy to use interface, end-to-end encryption and group chat features.
But in November the service is introducing two huge changes that will affect all Android users.
WhatsApp allows Android owners to back up their chats, including all media, through Google Drive.
Backup sizes were previously deducted from the user’s Google Drive storage quota, however a new deal between the tech giant and WhatsApp is changing this.
The messaging service has announced from November 12, 2018, backups will no longer deduct storage space from a user’s Google Drive account.
It then warned WhatsApp fans to “manually back up” their chats before the date to prevent any files from being lost.
The company said: “Starting November 12, 2018, WhatsApp backups will no longer count towards the Google Drive storage quota. Furthermore, WhatsApp backups that haven’t been updated in more than one year will be automatically removed from Google Drive storage. To avoid the loss of any backups, we recommend you manually back up your WhatsApp data before November 12, 2018.”
Most notably, when users back up their data to Google Drive, they miss out on one of WhatsApp’s best features.
With The Sun Newspapers