WhatsApp has officially announced the transfer of your chats from iOS to Android. The feature was already available in WhatsApp Beta and is now rolling out for Samsung phones.
Transfer WhatsApp Chats Available
The ability to transfer WhatsApp chats from iOS to Android is one of the most requested features according to WhatsApp. The feature was already announced during Samsung Galaxy Unpacked when it was announced that it will be available initially for Samsung phones including the new Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3.
Now the option to transfer chats from your iPhone to Samsung phone has been officially announced for Samsung phones running Android 10 or above. We are now starting to roll out the ability to move your WhatsApp history from iOS to Android. This happens without your messages being sent to WhatsApp in the process and includes voice messages, photos, and videos.
Transfer WhatsApp chats from iOS to Android
To transfer your WhatsApp data from your iPhone to a Galaxy phone, you need:
- USB-C to Lightning Cable
- The latest version of the Samsung Smart Switch
- The latest version of WhatsApp for iOS (2.21.160.17 or later)
- The latest version of WhatsApp for Android (2.21.16.20 or later)
Once you’ve taken care of this, you still need to keep these two things in mind:
- Same phone number from the old device on the new device
- Your new Android device must be new from the factory or restored to factory settings
Transfer WhatsApp Chats
Now you can get started transferring your chats from your iPhone to Android.
- Turn on your Samsung phone and wire it to your iPhone when prompted
- Launch Samsung Smart Switch and follow the instructions
- Scan the QR code displayed on the new device with your iPhone’s camera
- Tap Start on your iPhone and wait for the process to complete
- Continue setting up your new Samsung phone
- Open WhatsApp on the home screen and sign in with the same phone number you use on your old device
- Tap Import when prompted and wait for the process to complete
- Complete the activation of your new device, and the chats are ready for you
Incidentally, the data on the iPhone will not be erased by this migration. Do you use WhatsApp on an iPhone and an Android? Then the two separate WhatsApp backups (one in Google Drive and one in iCloud) will not be merged. In this case, the new backup will overwrite your old Android backup once you transfer your WhatsApp data.
If You Don’t Have a Samsung Device:
WhatsApp indicates that the feature will eventually come to more Android phones: We are making this option available so that more people can switch platforms and safely take their chats with them.” It is not known when this will be made available and whether you will soon be able to transfer your chats from Android to iOS.
For these people, there is currently only the cloud backup feature to keep the chat history. For iOS, iCloud is used for this, while the chat history of Android phones is in Google Drive. That means it is only possible to transfer your chats between phones running the same operating system.
