WhatsApp is one of the most used messaging applications in the world with more than 2 billion users. Earlier, users found it very difficult to move their entire chat data between different mobile operating systems so when they had to shift from Android to iPhones or from iPhones to Android they had to lose all important data including their photos, conversation chats, voice notes, and videos. The company has announced big news this week amid the Samsung launch event that it is bringing the most requested feature until now. This feature will cover all the data transmission between different mobile OS, however, it is not confirmed that whether it will be accessible on all the devices or not at this stage.
The company seemed to be functioning on assimilation on Android integral data portability tool named Google data transfer that enables people to move their media from one to other Android mobiles, or transfer from iOS device to Android. The latest feature that the company has unveiled is (for now) only workable on Samsung smartphones and its inbuilt feature named Smart switch. Currently, this inbuilt feature can easily move personal data including pictures, videos, phones numbers, songs, and conversation chats, and many more between different Samsung devices. Now it will also be able to shift the WhatsApp chat data.
The company stated that the Samsung Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 will get this transfer feature initially in the coming week; however, this feature will also be able to other devices too. However, the company has not commented yet about when the iOS users will get the same feature on their devices but the sources say that the company is still working on that feature too. Users need to keep in mind that the chat data will not be transferred through the internet rather users will be able to move their chat data with the help of USB-C to a physical Lightning cable. Then your smartphone will notify you to scan through the QR code using your previous mobile and you will be able to transfer your chat history. To finish the transfer process, you need to sign in to your account on the new smartphone and then import that chat history.
The company stated that its chat is e2e encrypted by default and stored on the mobile of a person. So developing this type of option needed extra work from the company and from the operating systems of mobile phones to create a safe way to transfer the data. The product manager of the company said that your messaging data are your privacy therefore they are kept in your devices and that is the reason these are not uploaded on the cloud just like other chat services. The company has not rolled out a safer way to shift the data between different devices and will be introduced on more devices soon.
Read next: WhatsApp is working towards end-to-end encryption on its local backup
The company seemed to be functioning on assimilation on Android integral data portability tool named Google data transfer that enables people to move their media from one to other Android mobiles, or transfer from iOS device to Android. The latest feature that the company has unveiled is (for now) only workable on Samsung smartphones and its inbuilt feature named Smart switch. Currently, this inbuilt feature can easily move personal data including pictures, videos, phones numbers, songs, and conversation chats, and many more between different Samsung devices. Now it will also be able to shift the WhatsApp chat data.
The company stated that the Samsung Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 will get this transfer feature initially in the coming week; however, this feature will also be able to other devices too. However, the company has not commented yet about when the iOS users will get the same feature on their devices but the sources say that the company is still working on that feature too. Users need to keep in mind that the chat data will not be transferred through the internet rather users will be able to move their chat data with the help of USB-C to a physical Lightning cable. Then your smartphone will notify you to scan through the QR code using your previous mobile and you will be able to transfer your chat history. To finish the transfer process, you need to sign in to your account on the new smartphone and then import that chat history.
The company stated that its chat is e2e encrypted by default and stored on the mobile of a person. So developing this type of option needed extra work from the company and from the operating systems of mobile phones to create a safe way to transfer the data. The product manager of the company said that your messaging data are your privacy therefore they are kept in your devices and that is the reason these are not uploaded on the cloud just like other chat services. The company has not rolled out a safer way to shift the data between different devices and will be introduced on more devices soon.
Read next: WhatsApp is working towards end-to-end encryption on its local backup