If you’re one of those people who keep wishing they could back up their WhatsApp conversations someplace, would Google Drive do it for you? The developers have released version 2.12.45 of the application which lets you do just this. But you’ll have to be careful about how you go about the backing up process since it eats up a lot of data.
The new feature doesn’t come as a surprise since it hit the rumor mill late last month. The official WhatsApp download page hasn’t listed this version 2.12.45 of the software. So you will have to follow this link to APK Mirror in order to download it. The update is built to back up your conversations as well as media to Google Drive.
After downloading and installing version 2.12.45 of the software, you have to go to Chat Backup from Settings and then, Chat Settings. It will show you the time of your last backup as well as a bunch of Google Drive settings. You can choose to store your conversations on daily, weekly or monthly basis, and also select your preferred Google account.
Obviously, you may also decide if you want your WhatsApp conversations backed up just over Wi-Fi or a cellular network and Wi-Fi. The process happens at a preset time, though impatient users can click the Back Up Now option which performs a local backup before beaming the data to Google Drive. But there are a couple things you must be warned about.
Also see: WhatsApp for Android gets revamped with Material Design concept
Android Police says you cannot hit pause or stop once your WhatsApp data starts being sent to Google Drive. If you’re planning to deploy your conversations for storage on a weekly basis, then be prepared to see a huge chunk of data being transferred, unless you’re the kind of person who doesn’t use the app too often.
It’s not certain at this point of time, but there seems to be a bug in the 2.12.45 update. The backup process supposedly continues on cellular data if no Wi-Fi is present, even it’s been set to work only when connected to a hotspot. Since WhatsApp version 2.12.45 is not a final release, such hiccups are expected to turn up.
This latest update to back up WhatsApp conversations to Google Drive has landed soon after the developers revamped the application for Android with the Material Design concept. Before that, all anyone could talk about was the voice calling feature.