WhatsApp allows you to transfer chat history between iOS and Android

WhatsApp adds the ability to securely bring your chat history with you when you switch from iOS to Android — including all your voice notes, photos, and chats.

In previous leaks, it appeared that the platform was integrating the feature into the built-in Android transfer application called the Google Data Transfer Tool.

Google Data Transfer allows users to transfer their files from one Android device to another or switch from iOS to Android.

The long-rumored feature was announced during Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event to announce its foldable phones.

The feature works with Samsung's own transfer tool known as Smart Switch. Which helps users to transfer contacts, photos, music, messages, notes and calendars to Galaxy devices.

The feature initially covers transfers from iOS to the new Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Galaxy Z Fold 3 and other Samsung phones in the coming weeks.

The feature will later cover all transfers between iOS and Android phones. This is although it is unclear when it will be available for all devices.

The new feature should help address one of the most annoying elements of the platform, which is that it was not officially possible to transfer chat history between mobile operating systems.

And if you choose to use WhatsApp's cloud backup feature, your iOS chat logs are stored in iCloud, while Android chat logs are in Google Drive, which means your chats can be transferred between phones running the same operating system.

The new feature transfers the chat history using the Lightning cable to USB-C physically instead of sending it over the Internet.

And if you have switched between iOS and Android in the past and you have two separate backups via the cloud. The new transfer feature will not combine them into a single chat history.

Instead, the platform says that if you use it to migrate and back up your chat history, any existing backups will be overwritten.

WhatsApp allows you to transfer chat history

The platform notes that the new feature allows the transition from iOS to Samsung's new foldable devices initially. And it allows the transition to Samsung devices running Android 10 and above in the coming weeks.

It declined to say when the feature will arrive on Android phones other than Samsung or when it will allow transfers from Android to iOS.

The company explained that creating such a feature was not a simple matter. Messages are encrypted via its end-to-end service by default and stored across users' devices.

Creating a tool to transfer chat history between operating systems requires additional work from both WhatsApp as well as the operating system and device manufacturers in order to build it in a secure manner, the company said.

She added: Your messages in WhatsApp belong to you. That's why they are stored via your phone by default. It is not accessible in the cloud like many other messaging services. We're excited to make it easy to securely transfer your chat history from one operating system to another. This has been one of the most requested features from users for years and we worked together with operating systems and hardware manufacturers to solve it.