One of the most common queries people have when it comes to WhatsApp is: can you migrate chats over to different platforms and numbers? Currently, you can only back up and restore from the same platform—Android or iOS—and you’re limited to restoring from the same number. This means that if you change your number, you won’t be able to bring over your old chat histories.
But fret not, because WhatsApp is finally working on a feature that will offer this functionality, as reported by WAbetainfo. Before we all get excited, “Chat History Migration” is still under development, although the team says that the feature will be available in a future update, and both iOS and Android versions of the app will be supported.
However, there are a couple of things to note:
- You will only be able to restore from another number when you link a new Android phone to your WhatsApp account.
- Media will be migrated as well as chat history.
Have a look at some screenshots of the purportedly confirmed feature:
Meanwhile, WAbetainfo also says that the team is developing a long-awaited cross-platform sync feature. This would allow iOS and Android users to finally, finally be able to restore chat histories when switching between Android and iOS devices. Right now, the main obstacle here is how WhatsApp backs up iOS chat histories on iCloud, with Android using Google Drive.
Both of these features—cross-platform sync and backups across different numbers—have been requested for a long time now. WhatsApp has certainly taken a long time to respond, and with the rise of rivals such as Telegram, Signal, and others, the addition of these possible new features is important to help WhatsApp meet the competition. Plus, the company has been embroiled in a degree of controversy due to its new terms—which have just come into effect.
Of course, none of the above is absolutely confirmed to be coming in an official rollout. A lot of features in development somehow disappear when official updates are released, but it does seem rather likely that we’ll see cross-platform and cross-number backups become available at some point. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
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