Migrating chat between two devices on WhatsApp was cumbersome, but Meta-owned WhatsApp has made it faster and easier to transfer WhatsApp chat history between devices on the same operating system, starting Friday (June 30). For the first time, users on the world's most popular messaging platform can transfer their complete chat and media history without having to exit the app between two devices on the same OS, which is Android to Android and iOS to iOS.
This feature was spotted earlier by WhatsApp beta tester WABetaInfo when it was in beta mode for testers on iOS and Android.
"If you want to move your WhatsApp chats to a new phone, you can now do it more privately without your chats ever leaving your devices," Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post.
Earlier, users had to depend on storing data and chat on the cloud before moving them between two devices. Now, with the new ability, there is no need to even use unofficial third party apps which lack clear privacy practices. The company is touting this as "more private" than cloud services; the transfer process is authenticated with a QR code and data is only shared between your two devices, and is fully encrypted during transfer.
"It’s faster than backing up and restoring your chat history and you can now also transfer large media files and attachments, which were usually too large to keep," the Meta-owned company said in a statement.
How To Transfer WhatsApp Chat Between Two Devices Faster
Once a user is ready to transfer their chats, they have to make sure they have both devices physically with them and both of them are connected to Wi-Fi and the location is enabled. Theu have to go to Settings > Chats > Chat transfer (on their old device) and scan the QR code shown on the screen with their new phone to complete the process. However, the chat transfer is possible between devices that are running the same OS, which is Android to Android and iOS to iOS.