WhatsApp to allow chat history transfers between iOS and Android

WhatsApp is adding the ability to bring your chat history with you when you switch from iOS to Android. This includes all voice notes, photos, and conversations.

WhatsApp made the announcement at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event on 11 August.

This much-anticipated feature had been rumoured for weeks.

The Galaxy Z Fold3 and Z Flip3 will be the first to allow this, covering transfers from iOS devices to the new foldables.

In a statement WhatsApp said it will start to roll out on Android initially, and on Samsung’s newest Galaxy phones to start.

Users will be able to take their WhatsApp history from iOS to an Android device, and will subsequently be able to do the same on iOS devices.

What happened before if you made a switch from iOS to Android or vice versa?

Before the introduction of this feature, if you switched from an iPhone to an Android phone, or vice versa, then you either had to put your trust in third-party apps, go through a complicated process, or say goodbye to your chat history and WhatsApp memories.

Ever since its inception more than a decade ago, WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps in the world.

Since then, the messaging app was always limited to a single instance on a single device. Switching phones would mean that users had to perform a back up to local storage so that messages, images, chats, and voice notes could be restored on a new device.

However, it was never possible to transfer data between operating systems.

This new WhatsApp feature promises to fix all that.

How Will This Feature Work?

The new feature transfers chat histories using a physical Lightning to USB-C cable rather than sending them via the internet.

Unfortunately, if you’ve transferred between iOS and Android in the past and have two separate cloud backups, the new transfer feature won’t merge them together into a single chat history.

However, WhatsApp says that if you use it to migrate your chat history and then back it up, it’ll overwrite any existing backups.