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How to Transfer Your WhatsApp Chat History From Android to iPhone

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After a long wait, Meta this week announced the ability to transfer WhatsApp chat history, photos, videos, and voice messages from Android to iPhone while maintaining end-to-end encryption. The system uses Apple's Move to iOS app for Android phones, and can be initiated during the setup process for a new (or factory reset) iPhone.

Whatsapp-Feature.jpg

This article runs through the steps involved in transferring your WhatsApp chat history from an Android phone to an iPhone. The much-requested migration feature transfers everything in your WhatsApp history including texts, voice notes, and media files to a new iPhone.

ios15-4-iphone12-pro-move-from-android-hero.jpg

Note that WhatsApp chat history migration is only supported on Android devices running Android 5.0 or later and iPhones running iOS 15.5 or later. Also, both the Android phone and the iPhone need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network when the migration takes place. The following steps guide you through the process.

Transfer WhatsApp Chats From Android to iPhone

  1. On your Android phone, download the Move to iOS app from the Google Play Store.
  2. Start the iPhone setup process of your new (or factory reset) iPhone.
  3. When the Apps & Data setup screen appears, select Move data from Android.
    ios15-iphone12-pro-setup-apps-data-move-data-from-android-ontap.jpg

    On your Android phone, open the Move to iOS app and follow the onscreen instructions.
  4. On your iPhone, tap Continue when you see the Move from Android screen, then wait for a ten-digit or six-digit code to appear.
    ios15-iphone12-pro-move-from-android-setup-iphone-code.jpg

    Enter the code on your Android phone, select WhatsApp on the Transfer Data screen, then tap Start.
  5. Wait for your WhatsApp history and data to be prepared for migration. Once the process is complete, you will be signed out of WhatsApp on your Android device.
  6. Once your iPhone is fully setup, download WhatsApp from the App Store and sign into the service using the same phone number.
After following these steps, the WhatsApp chat history from your Android phone should appear on your new iPhone.

Article Link: How to Transfer Your WhatsApp Chat History From Android to iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/transfer-whatsapp-history-from-android-to-iphone/
I don't use WhatsApp, but what a PITA. There isn't a way to just have your history stored in the cloud and synced automatically when you install the app on another device? My FB/IG message history is available on every device - iOS or Android...why is WhatsApp any different? They're owned by the same company.
 
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jkozlow3 said:
I don't use WhatsApp, but what a PITA. There isn't a way to just have your history stored in the cloud and synced automatically when you install the app on another device? My FB/IG message history is available on every device - iOS or Android...why is WhatsApp any different? They're owned by the same company.
Click to expand...
WhatsApp always used iCloud / Google Drive to store their backups, that's why they are not easily interchangeable. It would be way better if it had their own solution like Facebook Messenger.
 
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jkozlow3 said:
I don't use WhatsApp, but what a PITA. There isn't a way to just have your history stored in the cloud and synced automatically when you install the app on another device? My FB/IG message history is available on every device - iOS or Android...why is WhatsApp any different? They're owned by the same company.
Click to expand...

I guess it has to do with the fact that Whatsapp business model has always revolved around your phone number, they take measures to ensure they have that number right, by, for example, sending an sms to your new device when you switch to validate you own it. Thus, the chat history is tied and stored with your phone, and everything else syncs to it.

I also wish you could just login and get your message history.

PS.: as someone noted, the cloud services they use are just for backup as any other standard app.
 
Sheesh, I'm glad I only use Discord and Messenger and don't have such problems. Literally just log in on any platform I want and the history shows up just like that. This sounds so complicated in comparison.
 
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So what happens if you reset your iPhone in order to do this and then restore from a backup? Will it all merge?
 
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But why did Meta make it easier to switch to iPhone? So many folks I know were still on Android due to WhatsApp not being copied over to iPhone. With more people switching over to iPhone, user data will be hard to come by. We already know how Meta is fuming over privacy changes in iOS.
 
I recently did this migration for my girlfriend using third-party tools and we ended up with a strange issue whereby the old messages are all on the iPhone, but the older ones are somehow not visible. Had I known... I would have waited a bit longer! Resetting everything and migrating again will only cause all the newer messages to get lost... so I'm stuck I guess.

At least this will be easier for newer converts.
 
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LoveTo said:
But why did Meta make it easier to switch to iPhone? So many folks I know were still on Android due to WhatsApp not being copied over to iPhone. With more people switching over to iPhone, user data will be hard to come by. We already know how Meta is fuming over privacy changes in iOS.
Click to expand...
Maybe more people were dropping out of further use of Meta apps rather than not switching? I have saved my Android phone hoping that I could finally unify the data but also stopped using WhatsApp after the whole privacy change saga unless where absolutely necessary. Unfortunately can't get it off my phone as not everyone is convinced to move and some critical groups are on there. We really need to get to some system that allows the messages to be encrypted and decoupled from the provider clients - these are just texts and media, why should I need to be locked in? This is the true game changer rather than getting bogged down in whether one is locked into Android or iPhone itself.
 
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Jhieminga said:
I recently did this migration for my girlfriend using third-party tools and we ended up with a strange issue whereby the old messages are all on the iPhone, but the older ones are somehow not visible. Had I known... I would have waited a bit longer! Resetting everything and migrating again will only cause all the newer messages to get lost... so I'm stuck I guess.

At least this will be easier for newer converts.
Click to expand...
Darn, I had been hoping that if I had an iCloud backup of the current data and then did a switch and iCloud backup of the switched data, I could then finally edit and combine properly in the iOS DB style rather than having to try to unify two different db types which seems to be what all the transfer tools are doing atm.
 
4pp13 said:
Darn, I had been hoping that if I had an iCloud backup of the current data and then did a switch and iCloud backup of the switched data, I could then finally edit and combine properly in the iOS DB style rather than having to try to unify two different db types which seems to be what all the transfer tools are doing atm.
Click to expand...
You may be able to do this... I'm not saying that it won't be possible but just that I won't go down that route. I am not able to combine the databases like you mentioned. I wouldn't know how to go about that but if there is a way to merge migrated data from the old Android phone with the newer messages in her current iPhone, I would be interested...
 
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ilikewhey said:
wow finally, i got buddies who are stuck on android cause of their whatsapp history. too many "personal photos" 😂
Click to expand...

I don’t understand these people. I automatically save everything to the camera roll, sort them into folders and delete the crap I don’t need and wipe all the chat attachments on WhatsApp itself on a weekly base. My mother is one of those people with like a 7 GB WhatsApp and she’s like „I don’t want to delete anything because I am not sure what I already / didn’t already save!“ and then complains about her iPhone being full and asks me what she could do 😖 /rant over haha
 
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contacos said:
I don’t understand these people. I automatically save everything to the camera roll, sort them into folders and delete the crap I don’t need and wipe all the chat attachments on WhatsApp itself on a weekly base. My mother is one of those people with like a 7 GB WhatsApp and she’s like „I don’t want to delete anything because I am not sure what I already / didn’t already save!“ and then complains about her iPhone being full and asks me what she could do 😖 /rant over haha
Click to expand...
I’m probably the only one who doesn’t save anything of real value from WhatsApp to my iPhone - certainly not the poor quality images/videos.
 
_Spinn_ said:
I refuse to use WhatsApp since Meta owns them. I wish I could get more of my friends to use Signal.
Click to expand...
It’s been a very tough sell to anyone I know who isn’t already wary of Facebook and the privacy implications of posting your whole life online.
 
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So you have to factory reset the iPhone and then setup it up as new instead of just transferring from Android to iPhone?
For folks using both iPhone and Android simultaneously, it would have been much more useful to transfer WhatsApp chats history from one to the other.
 
Thanks. What if I actually want to restore from iCloud Backup? Do I factory reset again restore from iCloud Backup?

Until 2020 I had an Android phone. I stopped using WhatsApp until one day I'm able to transfer chat. I'm hoping to do this chart migration on an iPhone 14.
 
fede777 said:
WhatsApp always used iCloud / Google Drive to store their backups, that's why they are not easily interchangeable. It would be way better if it had their own solution like Facebook Messenger.
Click to expand...

Google Drive is available for iOS as well so that's why I don't understand why they just couldn't simply support restore.
 
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