Millions of WhatsApp fans face a shock new fee this year for using the hugely popular chat app but it can be avoided if you act now. Late last year, Google made a major announcement with the tech giant confirming that, from the start of 2024, all Android users would see WhatsApp backups count towards their total cloud storage.
Right now, WhatsApp is totally separate which means you can keep thousands of messages and images without using up your Google allowance - but that's about to change.
"As an important heads up, WhatsApp backups on Android will soon start counting toward your Google Account cloud storage limit, similar to how WhatsApp backups are handled on other mobile platforms," Google announced in a blog post.
"This change will first start rolling out to WhatsApp Beta users starting in December 2023, then gradually to all WhatsApp users on Android starting early next year."
Google currently offers 15GB of data for free but as soon as you hit that limit you'll need to stump up and pay more.
So how much is this going to cost you and how can you avoid it?
Google has a number of plans available including 100GB of storage for £1.99 per month or £2.49 per month if you want to double that to 200GB.
There's also the ultimate 2TB plan which costs £7.99 and is suitable for those wanting to keep endless 4K videos online and high-resolution images stored in the cloud.
If you don't want to pay but also don't want to lose your WhatsApp backups then the simple way to stop the fees is to make sure you clear out any old files, photos and videos from your Google account. Clearing space now will mean you won't be hit by the penalty when the new terms and conditions kick in.
"WhatsApp backups on Android will continue to work, as long as you have available space within your Google Account storage. If you hit your storage limit, you’ll need to free up space to resume backups by removing items you do not need," Google confirmed.
It might be the middle of winter but giving your phone a spring clean now could save you some money.