WHATSAPP users will soon be able to transfer their chat history, including media and voice messages, between iOS and Android phones.
The feature will start from iPhone to Samsung’s new foldables and is expected to be rolled out to more devices and work in both directions soon.
WhatsApp made the announcement at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event yesterday.
Before the announcement of this much-anticipated 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. This new feature promises to fix all that.
A user’s chat history is end-to-end encrypted on their own device, so those wanting to migrate their chats usually ran into technical issues.
“WhatsApp will be introducing the ability to move your entire WhatsApp chat history — including voice notes, photos, and conversations — in a seamless and secure way if you choose to switch mobile operating systems,” the company said.
“The feature means that people will be able to switch between the platforms of their choice, and take their WhatsApp history with them. The feature will be available to users of both Android and iOS systems — which means that people will be able to switch from both Android to iOS, and from iOS to Android.
“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.”
Product manager at WhatsApp Sandeep Paruchuri said this feature was requested for years and worked with operating systems to make it happen.
“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.”