Popular instant messaging app Whatsapp is finally giving users the option to backup chats on Google Drive. The feature will let users create a backup of their WhatsApp conversations on Google Drive and restore it whenever required. The announcement was made by Scott Johnston, Director of Product Management, Google Drive through an official blog post. The feature is rolling out Android users at the moment and there is no word of similar options for iOS and Windows users, or for iCloud and OneDrive.
Once the feature becomes available, it will be accessible via Chats and Calls option under Whatsapp Settings. For those who have multiple Google accounts, you will be able to choose the Google account of your choice for saving the backup. There is also the option for selecting the backup frequency — daily, weekly, monthly and even never if you don’t want to backup chats to Google Drive. Further, you can also choose whether you want the videos to be included while creating the backup or not.
Johnston said in the post, “Whether it’s recounting a story, watching a video, or enjoying photos with family and friends, our memories help us reconnect with what’s really important. And every month, nearly a billion people use WhatsApp to do just that. So starting today, WhatsApp for Android lets you create a private backup of your chat history, voice messages, photos, and videos in Google Drive. And once you do, you can restore everything on a new device with just a couple taps.”
The reports of WhatsApp getting the chat backup feature via Google Drive first emerged earlier this year. At that time, a member from the Whatsapp Translation group had confirmed about the text string translation requests that pointed toward the backup and restore feature via Google Drive. Many users also reported having seen the backing up feature on their phone from time to me, but the feature kept appearing and disappearing. But as the feature is official now, you can expect to receive it anytime soon. Earlier, Whatsapp had updated its app with various features like lower data usage and custom chat notifications among others. Recently, WhatsApp also rolled out a feature called ‘Starred Messages’ to iOS devices. The feature lets users to star any Whatsapp message which then saves the message to ‘Starred Messages’ tab.