Google will soon be offering Android platformed WhatsApp users complete peace of mind in the knowledge that their IMs are fully backed up to the Google cloud. This newfound functionality arrives in the wake of Wednesday’s announcement of a newly struck integration agreement between the two Internet giants.
The wholly-owned Facebook IM subsidiary will offer its users the capacity to connect the app to their own Google Drive user accounts where they will be able to store backups of all user data such as photos, voice messages, text messages, as well as video clips that if exchanged between themselves and their friends and family and now stored on their Android devices, within their own WhatsApp user data base.
WhatsApp users will have the option of backing up their personal data and a customisable schedule that includes options allowing users to do automatic backups on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. Users will have further control over which types of data they wish to backup to Google Drive, with options to include or exclude video clips depending on the number and size of videos stored on the local device and their data plan. After the backup options are set up, and the users can relax knowing that their data is safe and if they migrate to new phones the newfound function will easily transfer and restore data onto their new mobile device or even if their device had to be reset.
The newly scribed Google cloud backup agreement makes good sense, since Android is the dominant life-force in global cellular communications today. The part that raises eyebrows the most is the fact that WhatsApp’s parent company does not use its own Facebook infrastructure for its subsidiary’s user data cloud backups. However considering that iOS platformed WhatsApp subscribers also use the Apple iCloud to provide similar functionality, it might not be such a complete anomaly.
Google also committed itself by announcing that they would not be utilising the Google Drive stored WhatsApp user data to personalise its Google and their affiliates’ advertising, and that the new backup functionality would be rolled out within the next couple of months to appear in the WhatsApp settings menu on availability.