WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion users worldwide. It allows you to easily communicate with friends, family, colleagues, and more through text, voice notes, video calls, and more.
One great feature of WhatsApp is its ability to backup your chat history and media to Google Drive. This lets you save your conversations and ensure you have a copy in case you lose your phone or switch devices. However, there are some things to consider before enabling WhatsApp backups to Google Drive. In this 5000+ word guide, we’ll explore the pros and cons to help you decide if it’s right for you.
What gets backed up?
When you enable WhatsApp backups to Google Drive, it saves the following data:
- Your chat history and messages
- Photos and videos you’ve sent and received
- Voice messages
- Your contacts and contact info
Essentially, it backs up your entire WhatsApp account and data so you have a copy in the cloud. This lets you restore it when needed.
How WhatsApp backups work
WhatsApp gives you the option to manually back up your data at any time through the app settings. However, it also automatically backs up your data on a regular basis as long as you have backups enabled.
By default, WhatsApp backs up your data daily at 2am. However, you can customize this frequency to be daily, weekly, or monthly. Backups happen automatically when your phone is idle, charging, and connected to WiFi.
The backups are saved securely to your connected Google Drive account. You can choose whether to back up over cellular data or WiFi only.
Pros of backing up WhatsApp to Google Drive
There are several benefits that come with backing up your WhatsApp data to Google Drive:
1. Preserve your chat history
Backing up your chats ensures you have a copy of all your conversations, even years worth of old chats. This can be invaluable if you ever lose access to your current device and need your chat history.
2. Migrate chats to a new device
If you get a new phone, WhatsApp backups make it easy to transfer your chats during device setup. Just install WhatsApp and restore from your Google Drive backup.
3. Extra layer of protection
Storing backups in the cloud rather than just locally gives you an extra layer of protection from device failure or loss. Even if your phone is damaged or lost, you can still restore your chats from the cloud.
4. Organized chat archive
Backups serve as a searchable archive of all your chats, organized by date. You can even export the files as a Google Drive document.
5. Save media & files
All the photos, videos, voice messages, documents and other files you exchange on WhatsApp are preserved in the backups. So you don’t lose your shared media.
Cons of backing up WhatsApp to Google Drive
However, there are also some downsides to enabling WhatsApp Google Drive backups:
1. Uses your Google Drive storage
WhatsApp backups can take up a significant amount of your free Google Drive storage, especially if you exchange a lot of media. This may require you to upgrade your Google Drive storage plan.
2. Potential privacy issues
Your chats and data will be stored unencrypted in your Google Drive account. While unlikely, Google could technically access this data.
3. Backups may be incomplete
If backups are interrupted frequently, such as by closing the app during backup, your backups may not contain your full chat history.
4. No iCloud backup option for iPhone
On iPhone, you cannot natively back up WhatsApp chats to iCloud. Google Drive is the only backup option.
5. Requires Google account
You need an active Google account and Drive enabled to use this feature. It does not work with other cloud services.
How much Google Drive storage does WhatsApp use?
One major downside of backing up WhatsApp to Google Drive is it can quickly eat up your free storage quota. Here’s an overview of how much storage WhatsApp backups use:
| Backup Frequency | Estimated Storage Used |
|---|---|
| Daily | Up to 15GB per year |
| Weekly | Up to 5GB per year |
| Monthly | Up to 1.5GB per year |
This can vary a lot depending on your usage and how much media is exchanged. Video, in particular, results in very large backups.
Some key factors that increase WhatsApp backup size:
- Frequent media sharing
- Group chats
- Voice messages
- Frequent chatting
- Chat history length
Google Drive offers 15GB of free storage to each account. With daily backups, a heavily used WhatsApp account could potentially eat through an entire year’s worth of your free quota.
This makes it important to monitor your storage usage and upgrade your plan if needed. WhatsApp does let you manage your backups and exclude large videos or reduce frequency to save space if needed.
WhatsApp backup size management tips
Here are some tips to minimize how much WhatsApp backups count against your Google Drive storage:
- Use WiFi-only backups to avoid cellular data overages
- Exclude large videos from backups in settings
- Change backup frequency from daily to weekly/monthly
- Delete old backups you no longer need
- Export chat history and delete from Google Drive after exporting
- Upgrade your Google Drive storage plan if needed
With some management, you can likely handle most WhatsApp backups within the free 15GB plan, unless you are a very heavy user.
How to backup WhatsApp chats to Google Drive
If you want to start backing up your WhatsApp to Google Drive, here is how to set it up:
On Android
1. Open WhatsApp and tap the 3-dot Menu button
2. Go to Settings > Chats > Chat backup
3. Tap Back Up to Google Drive
4. Select backup frequency (daily, weekly, etc)
5. Tap Account and select the Google account to backup to
That’s it! Your chats will now backup automatically based on your selected frequency.
On iPhone
1. Open WhatsApp and go to Settings
2. Tap Chats > Chat Backup
3. Tap Backup to Google Drive
4. Choose backup frequency and WiFi only if desired
5. Log in to your Google account
Your WhatsApp chats will now backup to your connected Google Drive account on the schedule you selected.
How to restore WhatsApp backup from Google Drive
If you get a new phone or lose your device, here is how to restore your WhatsApp chats from a previous Google Drive backup:
On Android
1. Install WhatsApp on your new device
2. Open WhatsApp and verify your number
3. At the prompts, tap Restore to restore from Google Drive backup
4. Select the backup date to restore from
5. Your chats will all be restored!
On iPhone
1. Install WhatsApp and verify number
2. Tap Restore when prompted
3. Log in to your Google account with the WhatsApp backup
4. Select backup date and tap Restore
Your chats from Google Drive will be downloaded and restored on your device. Convenient!
How to delete WhatsApp backups from Google Drive
If you want to remove your WhatsApp backups from Google Drive to free up space, here is how:
From WhatsApp
1. Go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats > Chat Backup
2. Tap Delete Backup Account
3. Confirm deletion of backup data
This will remove all WhatsApp backup data from your Google Drive.
From Google Drive
You can also manually delete WhatsApp backups within Google Drive:
1. Go to drive.google.com on desktop
2. Open Google Drive and go to Backups
3. Right click on WhatsApp backup folders
4. Click Delete to remove backups
Either method will remove your backups and free up the storage space they were consuming in Google Drive.
WhatsApp backup encryption
One downside to backing up WhatsApp chats to Google Drive is that they are stored in an unencrypted format. Google could technically access your backup files if they wished.
WhatsApp is reportedly working on implementing end-to-end encrypted backups in the future. This would provide a much higher level of privacy protection.
Until encrypted backups are available, the only way to encrypt your WhatsApp data is to create your own local encrypted backups using third-party apps like iMazing (iOS) or SMS Backup & Restore (Android).
However, this requires manual backups and will not update automatically like Drive backups. For many users, the convenience may outweigh privacy concerns surrounding Google Drive backups. But encryption is an important issue to consider.
Should I backup WhatsApp to Google Drive?
So should you use WhatsApp’s built-in chat backup option to Google Drive? Here are some key factors to help decide:
Pros
- Easy to set up automatic backups
- Restores chats & data when switching devices
- Extra protection against data loss
- Convenient cloud access to chat history
Cons
- Counts against Google Drive storage limit
- Backups are not end-to-end encrypted
- Requires Google account and Drive access
- Potential privacy issues with Google access
For many users, the convenience and protection of automatic backups will outweigh the downsides. But consider your specific situation:
- How much do you want to preserve your chat history?
- Do you often switch between devices?
- Do you send a lot of media that could eat up storage?
- Are you comfortable with Google having access to backups?
Evaluate your needs and comfort level with Google Drive access to your data. You can always start with WhatsApp backups enabled and tweak settings or disable it later if needed. Just be sure to monitor your storage usage.
The bottom line
Backing up WhatsApp chats to Google Drive provides a convenient way to protect your chat history and seamlessly switch devices when needed. However, be aware it comes at the cost of your privacy due to lack of encryption. For many users, the pros will outweigh the cons but be sure to make an informed decision based on your specific needs and priorities.
Conclusion
Backing up WhatsApp to Google Drive lets you easily preserve your chat history, migrate your data between devices, and safeguard your conversations against loss. However, it also raises some privacy concerns due to lack of encryption, requires Google Drive storage space, and only works with Google accounts.
Carefully consider your specific needs and priorities around backup convenience vs privacy protection. Monitor your storage usage and tweak backup settings as needed for your usage levels. An encrypted backup option from WhatsApp would provide more assurance for privacy-focused users.
But for many people, the ease and assurance of automated Google Drive backups makes it worthwhile despite downsides. Just be informed about the pros and cons when making your decision.