If you want to do a bit of a digital declutter for the new year, my suggestion is to start with giving Whatsapp a bit of a clean sweep. You don’t have to delete all your actual texts because those don’t take up much space; just photos, gifs, videos, voice notes, contacts and location. It can make all the difference, like going from 3GB to 350MB. 

This works for both iOS (v 2.17.82) and Android (v 2.17.427).

STEP 1: Open Whatsapp and go into Settings

STEP 2: Go into Data and Storage Usage

STEP 3: Tap on Storage Usage. Here you will see a list of all your groups/individual chats listed by largest first.

STEP 4: Choose the largest group/chat you want to delete info from, and tap “manage” or “manage messages”. Tick whatever box you want to clear, this includes: text, photos, gifs, videos, documents, contacts, location, and audio/voice messages. I assume you want to untick text to keep those, and remove intensive content. Tap on “clear”. All done! Repeat for each large chat/group.

Your handset should be freed up of space. 

Top Tip: [Assuming you haven’t already] Make sure your auto-download settings are turned off for mobile data and if you prefer (recommended) on WiFi too. I get so much crap forwarded on Whatsapp so there’s no way I am leaving these settings on. I very rarely watch forwarded videos.

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