Google May Finally Give You Better Control Over Android Backups

Google seems to be working on giving users more granular control over data in Android backups. Not everything on your phone deserves to be backed up to the cloud. As you know, the Android platform currently doesn’t really give users a choice to select certain files/ data. Well, that might be changing soon.

Google is reportedly working on bringing granular data controls for Android backups

In the current state, the system automatically backs up all your call logs, messages, device settings, and apps and app to the cloud. There’s no real choice for users here. Not for long, though. Folks at Android Authority, while digging through the latest beta version 26.22.30 of Google Play Services, have spotted hints of Google working on giving users more granular control over data that is backed up.

In a much-needed change, users will reportedly be able to select each category individually via a toggle. This means Android users could finally be able to exclude anything that isn’t really worth backing up.

Disabling a category will also delete the existing backed-up data

Disabling any category on the list will throw a warning prompt asking for confirmation. If you confirm, it will not back up that specific category and will delete the existing backed-up data. This will ultimately save some of their Google One storage, while also reducing the time and data the backup uses. This is especially handy for those who don’t want to back up every file/data on their Android device.

Towards the end of last year, folks at Android Authority also spotted Google working on a feature to let users disable backups on a per-app basis. Although it’s not here yet, this new development suggests that it could arrive soon, giving users more control over what data they back up.

That said, it isn’t clear when Google will flip the switch on this feature. But when it does, we’ll make sure to update.