WhatsApp Chats Can Now Be Migrated From iPhone To New Samsung Phones

Whatsapp has announced in a blog post that it has added the ability for users to migrate their chat history when switching from iOS to Samsung Android devices.

Samsung has earlier announced that the Whatsapp feature was coming during its August Unpacked event and addressed one of the more frustrating features. if users selected WhatsApp’s cloud backup feature, then iOS chat histories were stored in iCloud, while Android’s histories backed up to Google Drive, making it almost impossible to transfer chats between phones that weren’t running the same operating system.

There are a few warnings WhatsApp outlines in its blog post:

For users moving from an iPhone to a Samsung Android device, their account information can be transferred, profile photos, individual chats, group chats, chat history, media and settings. Call history and/or display name cannot be transferred.

Furthermore, users can only do the migration during the initial setup of your new Samsung device, as the instructions from WhatsApp say that “your new Android device must be factory new or reset to factory settings” to allow the migration, so users would have to do a complete factory reset of their Samsung device if it is already operational.

The old iPhone needs to have WhatsApp iOS version 2.21.160.17 or newer and the new Samsung phone has to have WhatsApp Android version 2.21.16.20 or newer. The new device needs to have the Samsung SmartSwitch app version 3.7.22.1 or newer installed. The transfer takes place via a USB-C to Lightning cable, so you’ll need one of those as well.

Here are the steps to perform the transfer:

How to Migrate WhatsApp Chats from iPhone to New Samsung Device

Turn on your Samsung and connect via cable to your iPhone when prompted

Follow the instructions of Samsung Smart Switch

When prompted, scan the QR code displayed on the new Samsung device using the iPhone’s camera

Tap Start on your iPhone and wait for the process to complete

Continue setting up your new Samsung device

When you reach the home screen, open WhatsApp and log in with the same phone number as on your old device

Tap Import when prompted and let the process complete

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Finish activating your new device. Your WhatsApp chats should now be available.
After you complete the migration, your data will still be on your old iPhone unless you delete WhatsApp or wipe the device completely. The transferred data will not go to the cloud storage after the migration and WhatsApp says it cannot see the data you transfer.