Without us knowing it, WhatsApp saves a large amount of data on our phone. As a result, the application alone can weigh several gigabytes and use too much storage space.
No longer having storage space available on your smartphone is a real headache: you can no longer take photos or videos, you can no longer download any applications, and above all… you have to make choices! Because to free up memory, you have to clean up and sometimes delete a large number of files. Some transfer them to other devices, while others reluctantly part with them, but one thing is certain, it’s not fun for anyone.
You should know that certain applications take up a lot of space on our phones, because they store data without us even knowing it. This is the case of WhatsApp, a messaging service used daily by 24 million French people. Already, there is the application itself, then the data as well as the cache, which weigh in the balance. In total, WhatsApp can therefore occupy several tens of gigabytes (GB) of storage space. But data doesn’t just represent messages, it’s especially multimedia files that count. In conversations, photos and videos or even GIFs are legion. And many users have surely noticed: these images automatically slide into the phone’s gallery, whether we want them or not. It is precisely this setting, activated by default, which mainly uses your laptop’s memory.
But good news, deactivating it is child’s play: just go to the “Discussions” tab of WhatsApp settings. For iPhones, you must then uncheck the “Save (Photos)” option, which avoids file duplication. For Android smartphones, it’s the same thing, except the option is called “Media Visibility”. By deactivating it, images remain visible within the application, but are no longer automatically copied to the phone’s photo library. On the other hand, a small subtlety which can prove painful for Android: photos or videos deleted from the gallery will also be deleted from the WhatsApp conversation. They remain accessible, but you will have to download them one by one if you want to see them. In any case, deactivating this function saves you a few MB or even GB, and can also close the door to certain crooks who exploit it to send files and steal sensitive data.
If this manipulation is not enough to recover enough space, there is another equally simple trick. Still in the settings, this time you have to go to the “Storage and data” tab, then to “Manage storage”. You can then identify at a glance the largest files (over 5 MB), and the most demanding conversations, and thus select what you want to delete. On iPhone, images will remain available in Photos: you can thus save several GB in a few seconds, without losing precious files.
But be careful, this method only works on iOS smartphones. This is also possible on Android, but since the files are linked on this type of phone, they will be deleted from the gallery after being deleted from the application. A practical tip for those who regularly exchange photos and videos with friends or family.
