When it comes to getting completely rid of your WhatsApp chats, deleting them from merely your phone is not enough. If you are an Android user, you should also consider clearing out the Google Drive backups which until recently were not encrypted, meaning they can be accessed as they are, if someone was to hack into your Google account.

Moreover, clearing those chats could create some space for you in the Google Drive storage, which has now been capped to 15GB. You must, however, note that once you delete your chats from Google Drive, there will be no way to retrieve them. Follow the given steps to disconnect WhatsApp chats from your Google backup.

-- Go to drive.google.com on your browser. If you are using your mobile, switch to the desktop version.

-- Sign in with your Google ID and password, the one which is configured with your phone, to sync WhatsApp backup.

-- Select Settings from the top right corner where you will see your profile and account picture.

-- Select Manage apps on the left pane and scroll to the WhatsApp messenger section.

-- Click on Options and choose Disconnect from Drive option.

-- Confirm with disconnect prompt.

To delete WhatsApp backup from Google Drive:

-- Click on the Backups link on the left pane.

-- Select the backup file.
-- Select the Delete backup button on the top-right.

-- You will get a confirmation message, click on Delete.

If you do not want Google Drive to ever back up your chats, you can turn it off from your phone by following the given steps:

-- Open WhatsApp.

-- Go to Settings.

-- Tap on Chat Backup.

-- Select Backup to Google Drive.

-- Select Never from the options.

You can also delete your chats from the phone’s local storage

-- On your phone, open the Files or the FIles manager app.

-- Tap on the WhatsApp folder, and you will see a list of all the WhatsApp subfolders.

-- Tap and hold the Databases file.

-- Select Delete.

Last week, WhatsApp started rolling out its much-awaited end-to-end encryption to WhatsApp chat backups. The encryption is being rolled out to WhatsApp users on both Android and iOS platforms around the world. To create an end-to-end encrypted backup, make sure you are on the latest version of WhatsApp. Once you endure that, open Settings > Chats > Chat Backups > End-to-End Encrypted Backup, and then follow the prompts to create one.