How to avoid charges from Whatsapp in 2024

A MAJOR change will take place for WhatsApp users in 2024, and guess what, could cost you! Here we will take a look at how to avoid it. 

As of late December 2023, Whatsapp chat and media backups on Android will count towards your Google account cloud storage limit. This change actually is a reversal of a policy from the two companies from 2018, when backups stopped taking up Google Drive storage.

WhatsApp beta users immediately saw the change in December, with all other WhatsApp users experiencing the new policy effects in early 2024.

From now on, if you hit your storage limit, you will need to free up space in your Drive. If not, Whatsapp have stated that its app may “not function properly”, unless you buy some more storage space. 

Following this announcement, Google is now offering limited, one-time Google One promotions to ‘eligible users’. Google One starts at £1.59 a month for 100GB.

However, rather than continue to pay for more storage as you converse with friends and family, users also have multiple options for deleting content, including the bulk deletion of photos and large files. 

How to delete items in WhatsApp

Go to WhatsApp Settings.

Tap Storage and Data > Manage Storage

Tap ‘Larger than 5 MB’, ‘Forwarded Many Times’, or select a specific chat

You can:

– Select all items: Tap ‘Select All’ if you want to delete all items at once

– Delete individual items: Tap an item you want to delete. Select additional items to delete multiple items at once

Tap the trash icon

– If you selected starred items, you can choose to ‘Delete All Except Starred’ or ‘Delete All’

Tap ‘Delete Item’ or ‘Delete Items’

– If you selected duplicate items, tap ‘Delete Item’ and ‘Any Copies’ or ‘Delete Items’ and ‘Any Copies’

How to backup your chats in WhatsApp

Open WhatsApp and go to ‘Chats’

Select ‘Chat backup’

If you want to backup your chats immediately, tap ‘Back Up Now’

To select automatic backups, tap ‘Auto Backup’ and choose how frequently we want to save your chats – daily, weekly or monthly

WhatsApp users with a Google Workspace subscription through school or work will not be affected.