If you’ve checked your iPhone storage and found that WhatsApp is silently taking up several gigabytes, the platform is now testing a smarter way to clean up chats and reclaim some space.
According to the latest WABetaInfo report, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform is developing a new feature called “Advanced Chat Clearing Tool” that will allow users to easily delete selected items such as starred messages or media files while getting an estimate of how much storage space they are freeing up.
Why deleting WhatsApp chats has been frustrating so far
Previously, the platform allowed users to either delete everything in a chat or leave it intact. However, once the feature is available on WhatsApp for iOS (and eventually Android), users will be able to independently delete photos, videos, GIFs, voice notes, documents or other files within a chat while keeping the messages intact.
The feature builds on the app’s existing Manage Storage section and allows for more granular control over the data users want to delete, particularly on lower-end iPhones with 64GB or 128GB of storage.
If you frequently encounter iPhone storage almost full error messages, this WhatsApp update can help you save a few gigabytes of space that would otherwise be taken up by random GIF redirects, videos, and large files that you only need once.
So you should be able to delete a 500MB video document sent to a family WhatsApp group without deleting all conversation history, or a 100MB research paper sent by a fellow student or colleague. Additionally, you can free up storage space in a controlled and targeted manner, which should also result in fewer backups on cloud storage platforms.
Currently, the advanced memory collection tool is only available to iOS WhatsApp beta testers. However, the platform has historically rolled out successful features on the stable channel within weeks or months of testing. Later, WhatsApp could also release a similar feature for Android.
