Google's latest Android backup change uses more storage

Last year, we spotted Google quietly working on a way to give Android users more control over what gets backed up from their phones. More recently, the company also started letting people decide which apps should be included in those backups. Now, Google is making another tweak to the system — this time, it’s changing how those backups affect your Google storage.

Until now, most Android backups haven’t really eaten up your Google Account storage. The biggest exceptions were your Google Photos uploads and multimedia messages (MMS), such as photos and videos sent through text messages. Things like your SMS conversations, call logs, and many device settings were essentially stored without counting against your storage quota.

That’s changing. As first reported by 9to5Google, Google is rolling out a policy update that makes all Android backup data count toward your Google Account storage. That means text messages, call history, device settings, and other backed-up data will now use a small portion of your available space alongside your photos, videos, Gmail, and Google Drive files.

The good news is that the impact should be tiny for most people. Google says the average Android backup will grow by only about 40MB. To put that into perspective, that’s often smaller than a handful of high-resolution photos. Unless your Google storage is already hanging by a thread, you probably won’t notice much difference.

The company is also adding something many users will appreciate: more control. New toggles let you decide whether to include SMS and MMS messages, call history, and device settings in your backup. If there’s something you don’t care about restoring on a future phone, you can simply switch it off.

On Pixel phones, you can find these options by opening the Settings app, heading to Accounts and backup, selecting Google Backup, and then tapping Other device data. I looked for the new backup toggles on my Pixel 10 Pro while writing this story, but they haven’t shown up on my device so far. However, my colleague Adamya Sharma found the new toggles on her phone.

The rollout has already begun, and existing Google Accounts should receive the updated storage policy over the coming months. For most people, the extra storage used will be barely noticeable, but the new backup controls are arguably the bigger win, giving Android users more say over exactly what gets saved to their Google Account.