Whatsapp have added to the rapid fire updates on their Android app over the weekend with the additional capability of backup and restore for your chats via Google Drive.
The option to back up to Google Drive appeared in a recent update and made automatic in the latest update (Version 2.12.5) under Settings, Chat Settings where you can trigger a manual backup but other than that the app appears to choose your default Google account to store backups in, as there is no option to choose where (ie. which login for Google Drive) to send backups to.
Not having had much time yet to thoroughly investigate the changes there’s a couple of things that are worth noting
- backups are incremental (only backs up changes), not a full back up daily.
- Only conversations and photos are backed up/restored
- Data is hidden in your Google Drive and doesn’t appear in settings, manage apps
If you change devices or flash ROM on your phone at least semi-regularly you’ll be pleased to see that restoration is pretty much automated on installation and is as easy as tapping “restore”.
It’s great to see one of the third party messaging providers recognise that chat history is important to users and provide a way to backup and restore these conversations
Perhaps it’s just me; or is there a certain amusement in a Facebook owned platform using Google API for Drive to backup messages? Surely with all their computing power, Facebook could have found a way to integrate this into Messenger now the platform is open to developers?
Hit the Play Store to update your Whatsapp installation and make sure your chats are backed up to Google Drive.
Does the push to increase functionality in Whatsapp tempt you back if you strayed from their messaging, or have you settled on another third party messaging app?
Gud One 🙂
nice update 🙂