"WhatsApp's 2024 Update: New Costs and Changes for Android Backups"
Google has announced a significant change for Android users, where WhatsApp backups will now count towards the Google Drive storage quota. This ends the previous exemption that allowed WhatsApp data to not affect the free 15GB storage limit provided by Google. The change aligns Android's backup policy with other platforms like iOS, where backups count against iCloud storage. Users with large WhatsApp backups will see an immediate impact on their Google Drive storage space, potentially pushing them towards paid Google One plans for additional storage. This move is seen as part of Google's strategy to encourage more users to pay for its cloud services, following a similar change to Google Photos' unlimited uploads policy in 2021.