The instant messaging application is finalizing an option thanks to which you can easily migrate your conversation history from one smartphone to another, without going through the cloud.
With every change in the smartphone, the same question arises: how to proceed with the transfer of all the data? While syncing with Google Drive on Android and iCloud on iOS greatly simplifies things, there are still apps where data transfer is more complicated. This is particularly the case in WhatsApp.
And while the app allows you to backup your chat history to Google Drive or iCloud, the process isn’t always straightforward. You will first need a strong internet connection to get your data back, but also make sure you have enough cloud storage to store your WhatsApp backup.
However, Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, is looking into a new option to transfer your live WhatsApp history from your old smartphone to your new device.
Safer transfer of your chat history
This new functionality was officially unveiled a few days ago by Mark Zuckerberg on his Facebook account. With video support, he demonstrates a new method of transferring conversation history that begins immediately after scanning, with his old device, a QR code displayed on the screen of a new smartphone.
What distinguishes this method from those that already exist? You don’t need to move your data to the cloud here. The two devices only communicate with each other through your local Wi-Fi network to perform the data migration. Will Cathcart, the head of WhatsApp, also indicated in a post shared on Twitter that the transmission of chat history was done in a secure way, possibly using an encryption algorithm.
Be careful, but this new option will only allow you to transfer your conversations between two smartphones with the same operating system (iOS, Android). So it is useless to imagine being able to perform this process between an Android device and an iPhone. The function, which is currently being tested in a beta version of WhatsApp on Android, should be rolled out very soon to all devices. You will find it in the app’s settings, under the Discussions menu where you should be presented with an option to move conversations.
To transfer chat history between your Android device and iPhone, you will need to use the dedicated option that WhatsApp introduced last year. The process, which is particularly more complicated and longer, must be performed compulsorily when configuring your new machine after it has been started for the first time.
