WhatsApp Creates New Feature That Controls Details Of What Content You Want To Save

WhatsApp continues to develop new features for its users. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - WhatsApp is working on a feature that will offer users more granular control over what content they want to back up and exclude certain types of files that they don't want to store in their linked cloud accounts.

So far, the only control users have when creating cloud backups is choosing whether they want to include videos as well. Other chat data, such as text chat history, images, files, audio clips, and certain settings are automatically backed up to the linked Google Drive or iCloud account.

While there are still limitations when it comes to cross-platform WhatsApp data recovery, another issue that arises is the size of the backup. For users, especially those who exchange a lot of documents and images, creating a cloud backup can be a time-consuming affair and so can the restoration process.

Also, those on a limited mobile data plan may find it a bit more expensive to create a cloud backup of their entire WhatsApp chat log, even after excluding videos.

It appears that WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow users to choose what files they want to save to their linked cloud account when creating a backup. In the latest beta version of WhatsApp (v2.21.21.7, now available via Google Play), WABetaInfo sees a more refined mention of the backup page in the Settings section of the app where users get dedicated switches for photos, audio, video, documents and other media that shared in their chat.

Previously, the only button users had was to back up videos to the cloud which could later be restored on another device or after deleting the app. For reference, it looks like the changes are not widely available to all beta testers running the latest version v2.21.21.7 on Android.

The biggest advantage of the more granular chat backup section is that users can control what files they want to back up to their linked cloud service. Reducing unnecessary files that don't deserve to be backed up will definitely speed up the process and consume less data, which is very helpful for those who do business via WhatsApp and often share product image catalogs.

However, the biggest advantage of the controlled data backup process on WhatsApp is the security aspect. Facebook says it can't access data stored as backups in the cloud service, though recent activity may not lend it much credence.

Cloud services are not immune to hacking. For example, there was the infamous iCloud hack that caused sensitive images of several celebrities to leak online. Facebook recently promised to quickly secure backups with end-to-end encryption and also described extensively the enhanced security key features, although the tool is not yet widely released.

It seems that recent privacy-related legal setbacks have forced Facebook to roll out more robust security-centric tools for its platform and that's a good thing for users.