Google just upgraded Android backup system without telling anyone

Source: Nick Sutrich / Android Central

Google appears to be upgrading your phone’s backup system behind the scenes to a significantly better version. Parked Backup by Google One, the update was first revealed by 9to5Google and, while Google itself doesn’t make much noise, replaces your phone’s existing backup system. We have reached out to Google to get more information and to find out when this could be rolled out for everyone and will update this article with that information, although it is supposed to be rolled out “in the next few weeks.”

You will not have to do anything to receive this update; instead, just keep an eye on your phone’s settings to backups change to Backups by Google One. Once this change is made, you will be able to select more granularly what to save on your phone, now including MMS as well as SMS. Previously, things like MMS, photos, videos, and wallpapers were synced by a different app, depending on the phone you were using. Most of the best Android phones already let you do this, but now it’s easier than ever.

Now that this system-level backup utility manages everything, you can more easily control all the items you want to back up from a simple interface. The complete list of articles that Backups by Google One will now handle app data, call history, device preferences, messages (SMS and MMS), Wi-Fi passwords, wallpapers, system settings such as brightness screen, photos, videos, etc.

Despite the name, Backup by Google One does not require a Google One subscription. Rather, it is a complete replacement for the existing backup system built into all Android phones, designed to back up your important data to your Google account. Users who don’t pay for a Google One subscription will still have everything backed up – they’ll just have to make sure new additions to backups don’t fill the 15GB of cloud storage you get for free from Google.