Switching from an Android smartphone to an iPhone can sometimes take a while. In the future, however, data transfer will be faster with WhatsApp.
Even if the fronts between iOS and Android users sometimes seem to be hardened, it still happens that one or the other can imagine switching between the smartphone operating systems.
It is all the more annoying when the transfer of all data and settings does not work as usual. That was also the case for chats from WhatsApp so far.
Until now, users could only transfer data from the iPhone to Android smartphones. The other direction of data transfer usually required expensive or dubious solutions from third-party providers. But that is about to change, as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at Facebook.
WhatsApp makes it easier to switch from Android to iOS
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature on Facebook, saying, “On WhatsApp, we’re adding the ability to securely switch between phones and transfer chat history, photos, videos, and voicemails between Android and iPhone, while maintaining end-to-end encryption.”
That’s one of the most requested features.
After adding iPhone-to-Android transfer last year, secure data transfer now follows in the other direction.
Experts had already speculated about the new function. The blog WABetaInfo had already tracked down the test in WhatsApp at the beginning of January.
How does the data transfer work?
As Mark Zuckerberg writes, users will not only be able to transfer chat histories from Android to iOS. Also all video, audio and photo files can change the smartphone.
Users can make the transfer directly via the Android app “Transfer to iOS” during the initial setup of their iPhone.
The app creates a WLAN connection between the two devices. In this way, data, settings and, in the future, WhatsApp chat histories can be transferred securely to the new device.
The only requirement is that the same phone number is used on both the old and the new device.
What happens after the initial setup?
But once the initial setup is complete, users are faced with the same problem again. There is still no easy way to transfer the data from an Android smartphone to an iOS device.
The only option would be to completely reset the iPhone again. This way, users can force a new initial setup.
