Google finally gives Android users the backup settings they always should have had

In 2025, Google changed how backups work on Android devices, making it easier than ever for users to manage their backups. Since then, the company has also introduced automatic backups to Android devices, which allow you to automatically clean old data from your phone and place it in the cloud for safe keeping when you no longer need it. That’s all well and good, but there’s one problem Google hasn’t solved yet and really needed: giving users more control over what they want to back up. Well, it looks like the time has finally come, as Google is currently rolling out a per-app backup feature to Pixel devices, which will allow users to customize which apps they want to backup to their Google account.

According to reports shared by 9to5Google, the new feature appears in the backup device information found by going to Settings > Accounts & Backup > Google Backup > Other Device Data. Google added an updated app data section to this page. Previously, the section simply listed apps and app data with a total count and amount of data stored. However, Google now shows the top three apps you have using space, new toggles next to each one allowing you to turn them off or on, and a Show more option.

The purpose of this additional control appears to be to give users more direct access to what’s taking up their Google cloud space. Although everything is enabled by default, you can easily disable each app as you see fit. This is useful if you have applications that you don’t need to back up, such as those that you are simply testing or that don’t need to back up data long term.

Additionally, you can see how much data each of the apps saves by looking at the sizes listed next to them. As we noted above, the first three listed are the ones with the most data backed up, but if you continue down, you’ll see apps that currently have no data backed up. This lets you turn off data backup for apps you don’t need it for before they start taking up your precious Google cloud storage.

Backups are an important part of any device, but it can be frustrating to be notified of full storage, giving you another option instead of uninstalling your apps. This depth of control is something that should have been available on Android much earlier, although currently it seems that this feature is only available on Pixel devices. There are many mistakes you can make to lose important data, but at least you now have a little more control over what you keep.