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WhatsApp has announced that Android and iOS mobile users will now transfer their chat history from one OS to another. This chat history includes voice notes, photos, and conversations. This functionality will first roll out for Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones — Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 — launched during the Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday (11 August). Users will be able to transfer chats from iOS to these Samsung phones.
WhatsApp further reveals that after the new Galaxy foldable phones, other Samsung smartphone users will be able to use this feature, given that their device runs on Android 10 or higher. Users will now be able to transfer their WhatsApp chat history from iOS to Android and vice versa.
As per a statement by Sandeep Paruchuri, Product Manager, WhatsApp, “Your WhatsApp messages belong to you. That’s why they are stored on your phone by default and not accessible in the cloud like many other messaging services. We’re excited for the first time to make it easy for people to securely transfer their WhatsApp history from one operating system to another. This has been one of our most requested features from users for years, and we worked together with operating systems and device manufacturers to solve it.”
Before this, users only had the option to get a cloud backup. Meaning, iOS chat history will be stored on iCloud, and Android’s WhatsApp chat history will be stored on Google Drive; hence the chat history will only be transferred if the phones are running on the same operating system.
According to a report by The Verge, the transfer will take place via physical lightning to USB-C cable and not via the internet. The report further suggests that if the users already have a cloud backup of both operating systems, the feature will not merge them into a single chat. Instead, if you migrate the chat history and back it up, it will overwrite those backups.
Notably, WhatsApp has not revealed if or when this feature will roll out for other smartphones.
