It has been a pretty nifty feature, the ability to backup your WhatsApp messages; text and other multimedia files like pictures, videos, audios, document, and more recently, GIFs. That means if you are unable to use your regular phone; either because it is stolen or lost. When you get a replacement device, and download a new WhatsApp app, you log in to your number and simply restore your history from the Google Drive.
However, when you look into the content of your Google Drive, you will not see any folder by the name WhatsApp meant to store the entire app’s backed up data. That has been the case until now.
WhatsApp backup folder has now started appearing on Google Drive. In the past, WhatsApp backup system has been taking place in the background, and the process, also hidden in the background.
Some users are reporting they can now see the WhatsApp backup folder in their Google Drive on the web and even on the mobile app version. On mobile, the Drive appears under the Trash icon located in the navigation pane to your left.
This development means users can now manually manage the content inside the WhatsApp folders stored in your cloud. When you open the folder, you see a list of all WhatsApp data backed up, and can go further to deleting some of the files you no longer want to be backed up.
About WhatsApp backup on Google Drive
This feature was introduced in 2015 and is available for both Android and iOS users. iOS users backup their WhatsApp data on iCloud. Users get the option of choosing the frequency of the backup, what should be backed up; text messages, photos, videos, and audio files. You can choose between daily, weekly, or monthly backup frequencies. Lastly, you can turn off the feature by selecting the ‘Never’ option, which means WhatsApp will not backup your data to the cloud.