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Backing up your messaging apps on iOS largely relies on iCloud. Over on Android, unsurprisingly it relies on Google’s services like Google Drive/Google Photos, but it seems that according to a report from Android Police, Google will be temporarily hitting the pause button on those backups.
In a post on the Google Photos support page, a Google rep has revealed that due to the increase in photo and video sharing done on Google Photos, in a bid to “save internet resources”, the company will be temporarily disabling the backup & sync feature from various messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Messages, Kik, and so on.
According to Android Police, they were tipped off by XDA Developers’ Mishaal Rahman who notes that the apps affected include:
- Helo
- LINE
- Messages
- Messenger
- Snapchat
- Viber
Note that this does not mean that Google will no longer accept backups from your messaging apps, but rather it seems that Google will be disabling backing up content in device folders from messaging apps by default moving forwards. Also, we should point out that this does not affect the backup that your messaging apps make to Google Drive, those will continue to function as per normal, so unless you’re the type that prefers backing up their media files received through messaging apps in Google Photos, this shouldn’t affect you.
But in case you would prefer having an additional layer of backup, users can go ahead and manually re-enable those backups anytime they want, but it’s something they will need to do and be aware of.
We imagine that this might be annoying for users who might suddenly find themselves without backups for however long Google plans to implement these changes for. It also comes a little bit late because other companies had announced plans to throttle speeds and streaming quality months ago, so it is unclear why Google is only taking action with Google Photos now.
Source: Android Police
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