The messaging application takes up a lot of space in the memory of the smartphone, especially if we download a lot of photos and videos
WhatsApp has many useful features that allow you to make the most of your smartphone. But it also has some big problems that undermine the proper functioning of the device. The main one is the occupation of the memory of the smartphone: if we download all the photos and videos we receive in conversations it takes a short time to find all the space occupied. If WhatsApp takes up too much space on your smartphone, you don't have to worry: using some simple tricks you can free up memory and get your device back to its former glory. The important thing is to manage the download of videos and images that we receive on the instant messaging application. It is precisely the multimedia files that are the number one danger for the memory of the smartphone: often we do not realize it, but just ten videos to see the storage space fill up by 50%.
How to free up space on WhatsApp
The first trick to put into practice if WhatsApp takes up too much memory is to change the automatic file download settings. In this way, when we enter inside the chats with our friends, photo and video content will not be downloaded automatically. We'll be the ones to decide if it's worth doing, saving memory on the smartphone. Changing the setting is really very simple: you have to open WhatsApp, go into Settings (the icon with the three vertical lines in the upper right corner) and then press on Data usage and archive. A new tab will open, and under the headings "When using the mobile network", "When connected via Wi-Fi" and "When roaming" you should set the option No media.
Deleting chats
If changing the settings of "Automatic download" does not solve the problem of low memory, it is necessary to intervene with the "strong hands" by deleting the heaviest conversations. This is a painful choice, also because in most cases the heaviest chats are also the ones we care most about, but it is the only possible thing to do. To delete a conversation with all the multimedia content inside, you have to enter the chat, press the icon with three vertical dots at the top right, then click on More and finally on Delete chat. If you don't want to be so neat, deleting years and years of memories, you can try to delete only the useless pictures and videos. Each conversation hides a media section inside where all the downloaded photos and videos are collected. By going inside you'll be able to select unnecessary media content and recover space in your smartphone's memory. In this way we will avoid deleting conversations.
Transferring content to a microSD card or cloud space
To free up memory space occupied by WhatsApp photos you can transfer them to the cloud space (Android users have the ability to save images on Google Photos) or to a microSD card. A very simple trick that allows you not to delete the chats or photos with videos that you care most about.