Google is disabling the image and video backup of the Google Photos application for folders created by services such as WhatsApp, Messages and Kik. In essence, that means that by default Google Photos will not back up photos and videos of those services saved on your phone in the future. The change appears to be temporary, and Google hopes it will take a toll on the use of Internet resources during the ongoing pandemic. If you prefer, you can easily roll back the change manually to re-enable those backups at any time.

The change comes courtesy of an announcement to the Google Photos Help Community, and a separate notification via the Google Photos app will also be implemented as part of the change starting today.

More details are available in an associated help document, but the very short version is that Google Photos is changing its default settings to disable backup of content in device folders created by apps like WhatsApp, Messages and Kik. Apparently, a full list of affected apps isn’t available, but Mishaal Rahman from the XDA developers tells us that folders for the following apps are included:

  • Facebook
  • Hello
  • Instagram
  • LINE
  • Messages
  • Delivery courier
  • Snapchat
  • Twitter
  • Viber
  • WhatsApp

Previous backups are not affected by the change, and you can re-enable the settings if desired, or manually back up individual items.

This kind of effort seems a bit late. YouTube set its own limits and limitations to help ease Internet congestion months ago, and other streaming services like Netflix imposed (and later relaxed) their own temporary changes. Google Photos is a bit late for the “Save Internet Bandwidth During the Pandemic” party, though I hope it makes a difference in my fast-firing Rocket League ping.