In April, WhatsApp announced the development of a feature enabling Android users to back up their chats on an encrypted cloud storage platform. The Meta-owned company is now extending this feature to iOS users as well.
This update was reported by WABetaInfo, which discovered the feature in beta version 26.28.10.16 of WhatsApp for iOS.
Currently, Android users back up their chats to Google Drive, while iOS users utilize iCloud. The new feature will provide both Android and iOS users with an option to select between Google Drive/iCloud and WhatsApp's native cloud storage solution, offering 2GB of free storage.
Additionally, WhatsApp is contemplating paid storage options, including a 50GB plan expected to cost $0.99 per month.
Users opting to back up their chats on WhatsApp's encrypted cloud can protect their data with a passkey, a password, or a 64-digit encryption key. Notably, backups stored on WhatsApp’s cloud will come with end-to-end encryption by default. Users wishing to disable encryption can switch back to Google Drive (for Android) or iCloud (for iOS), where encryption is optional.
WhatsApp continues to refine the encrypted cloud storage feature for both Android and iOS. While a public release date remains uncertain, it is anticipated that beta users will gain access prior to a wider rollout.
