Facebook-owned popular messaging platform WhatsApp will make it easier to move chats between Android and iOS soon, a long-awaited feature that users have been asking for.
The messaging app allows you to back up your data to a third-party cloud storage app, but it does not allow you to migrate your chat history from devices on different operating systems such as Android and iOS. This could change soon with a new update. If you turn from an iPhone to an Android phone, you’ll soon be able to pass your WhatsApp conversations and vice versa.
According to a report from WABetaInfo, the messaging service will introduce a chat history migration feature in a future update, allowing you to move your chat history between devices. The website also posted a screenshot showing that transferring chat history to an Android phone requires the current version of WhatsApp.
WaBetaInfo reports show that “when the user tries to link a device having a different operating system to his WhatsApp account, it’s always needed to update to the latest WhatsApp update available on the App Store or TestFlight, to avoid any compatibility error with the Android version.”
WhatsApp currently transfers your account information, including your profile photo, name, about, individual chats, group chats, and settings, when you switch from iOS to Android or Android to iOS, but it does not migrate your chat history.
The exact release date of this feature is currently undisclosed. It could come with a feature that allows it to work with multiple devices. As per the reports, this means that you will soon be able to use WhatsApp on several devices.
The report stated that “the development of the feature takes a long time because it will change your experience on WhatsApp, and a lot of things have been rewritten to be compatible with multi-devices.”
WhatsApp is also planning to add a new feature called “Larger Media Preview.” In other words, the photos you post on WhatsApp will appear exactly as they did when you first posted them, and the app will not crop them. This feature is included in WhatsApp’s 2.21.8.1 beta update, so anyone interested in trying it out can download the most recent version.
Related: WhatsApp Feature Update: Different Playback Speeds for voice messages coming soon