Currently, WhatsApp backups do not count towards the Google Drive storage limit.
But all that could change soon with a limited plan of 2000MB per user.
WhatsApp can allow users to manage backup
The WaBetaInfo website, a platform that tracks WhatsApp updates and new features, found that the WhatsApp app is working on a new feature. According to the same source, this new function will allow users to manage their own backup copies of content (messages, audio, video, etc.) received in the application.
The reason for developing this feature is not entirely clear, however the WaBetaInfo platform notes that this may be related to future storage limits for WhatsApp backups to Google Drive.
Also according to the same source, Google Drive may be preparing to change the rules for WhatsApp users.
Apparently WhatsApp backups may soon count towards cloud storage quota. Once confirmed, users will be asked to switch to a limited plan of 2000MB per user for backups of their WhatsApp accounts.
This is bad news for all account holders in the chat app. But with this new feature now in development, users can manage their own backups, through some options that will be very useful in case of storage limit.
The new WhatsApp function allows the selection of content to be saved
In particular, the new function may eventually allow users to exclude some multimedia content from backup. In other words, it will be possible to select the contents to be stored in the Google cloud.
Remember that this Google Drive storage limit for WhatsApp content isn’t exactly new. Until 2018, the quotas were limited. But on that date, the situation changed when the chat platform partnered with Google so WhatsApp backups were not included in the storage available to each user.