WhatsApp begins testing chat migration between iOS and Android

Damien Wilde | Apr 6 2021 - 2:08 am PT

Switching a smartphone is fairly easy in 2021, but the migration of chat history and messages between iOS and Android devices is practically nonexistent in apps like WhatsApp — at least for now.

There are a few apps and services that claim to be able to fully transfer your WhatsApp chats and messages between Android and iOS, but none are officially recognized by the Facebook-owned firm, and the act of migration is actually a violation of their Terms of Service. We’ve seen WhatsApp begin work on a number of features including multi-device support, but thanks to digging by WABetaInfo, it looks like the next big development could make switching from smartphone OS to smartphone OS that bit easier than ever before.

Now this sounds great, but like many things that WABetaInfo has uncovered previously, there is absolutely no guarantee that “official” chat migration will ever be possible between Android and iOS — or vice versa. However, this would make things much easier if you like to switch between Apple’s premier mobile operating system or one of a multitude of Android-powered smartphones.

This looks like it’s part of a wider multi-device support feature that is still in the works and could really shake up WhatsApp, as the firm has lost a fairly substantial user base over privacy-related issues to competitors in recent months. Given the popularity of WhatsApp in regions outside of the US, it’s among the most used free messaging apps on Android and iOS. Chat migration efforts would be very beneficial to buyers out there that struggle to weigh up the potential loss of message history when looking at a new Android or iOS device too.

Telegram and Signal offer similar chat migration features between iOS and Android, so it’s only natural that WhatsApp — being the world’s biggest cross-platform messaging app — would follow suit. Despite this, no other information was shared and a timeline for any release is still under wraps at this stage.