WhatsApp's Manage Storage Feature Allows Users To Quickly Delete Media Files

WhatsApp manage storage, Android

64GB? 128GB? 256GB? 512GB? Or 1TB and beyond? Whichever phone storage capacity people, sooner or later, they may find it insufficient.

For users who spend a lot of time chatting on their phone, chances are, a good chunk of its storage has been taken up by videos and images sent by friends and family members over the years. WhatApp users may have experienced this from time to time, as well as the headache that comes with it.

Fortunately, WhatsApp had a basic functionality users can use to clear the app's stored media.

But in an update, WhatsApp is introducing a fully-fledged data management.

Users just need to head to WhatsApp > Settings > Storage and Data > Manage Storage, to see an updated interface.

Another noteworthy addition, is the feature in dividing media files into two categories:

  1. Files that have been “forwarded many times.”
  2. Files that are larger than 5MB.

WhatsApp sorts the files by in descending order, to also provide users a way to preview the files before deleting them.

Through the feature, WhatsApp is letting users manage the storage the app uses, allowing them to easily identify, select and bulk delete content that may be filling their phone, while maintaining the files they want to keep.

Users can also see a preview of media before selecting one or multiple items to delete.

Furthermore, the update also makes WhatsApp capable of displaying a warning when users' phone is running low on storage, prompting users to delete some media files.

Communication has become so crucial in the modern days of the internet, that almost no mobile users can own a smartphone without some sort of messaging app installed.

WhatsApp is by far the most popular app out there in the market. Owned by the social giant Facebook, it has been the benchmark of what a messaging app should be capable of.

With its popularity spanning many countries across the globe, accounting to more than 2 billion people, there will be a time that users experience the GIFs they downloaded, the videos and bulk images they received are piling and filling up their phone's storage.

WhatsApp is already notorious for eating a huge chunk of users' device storage without users noticing.

And in this 'COVID-19' coronavirus-infected world that forces many people to rely more on technology for communication rather than meeting in person, the feature to organize media files is indeed a very welcome addition.

Initially, the feature comes only to Android phones.

Published: 
04/11/2020