WhatsApp launches exciting new feature many have been waiting for

WhatsApp is adding the ability to bring your chat history with you when you switch from iOS to Android.

The feature was announced during Samsung’s launch event today and will initially cover transfers from iOS to Samsung phones “in the coming weeks.”

The new feature should help address one of WhatsApp’s most frustrating elements,

The new feature transfers chat histories using a physical Lightning to USB-C cable rather than sending them via the internet.

Previous chat history

Unfortunately, if you’ve transferred between iOS and Android in the past and have two separate cloud backups, the new transfer feature won’t merge them together into a single chat history. Instead, WhatsApp tells me that if you use it to migrate your chat history and then back it up, it’ll overwrite any existing backups.

WhatsApp says the new feature will allow transfers from iOS to Samsung’s new foldable devices at first, and it will allow transfers to Samsung devices running Android 10 and up “in the coming weeks.”

Reports state that the tech giant declined to say when the feature might arrive for non-Samsung Android phones or when it’ll allow Android to iOS transfers.