Until now, anyone who wanted to switch between an iPhone and an Android smartphone had to live with losing WhatsApp chats. Now Whatsapp has announced that it will finally allow a move. But there are still several major catches.
For many users, it should have been one of the biggest hurdles when switching between iPhone and Android smartphones: When moving to the new system, a lot of data can be transferred, but the chats on WhatsApp are left out – and you have to start over. Now the messenger finally wants to enable a transmission. But not for everyone for the time being.
This was surprisingly announced by Samsung when it presented its two new folding smartphones Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 (you can find out more about the devices here). The presentation promised that they would also be the first models to be able to import WhatsApp chats including photos, videos and voice messages from an iPhone. But if you are cheering now, you should first look at the small print, which was even shown during the presentation.
Whatsapp data transfer: Not as easy as desired
According to this, the function is actually only available on Samsung smartphones, which cost from 1049 euros, for the time being, and other devices will follow at a later date. Whatsapp only mentions 2021 as a requirement. But even then it will not be available for all smartphones: Whatsapp names Android 10, which was released two years ago, as a minimum requirement: However, this is by no means installed on every device: According to Statcounter, around 36 percent of German users use an older version. Anyone who wants to switch from Android to iPhone will have to wait anyway: So far, data transfer has only been announced in the other direction.
Even on supported devices, however, there are a few other catches. Instead of a wireless connection, the chats can only be transmitted via a special cable that has USB-C on one side and Apple’s Lightning connector on the other. In addition, the chats can only be imported when the device is set up for the first time, warns the messenger. Once Whatsapp has been set up on the device, it is no longer possible to import the old chats.
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Top target group
Even before the initial setup, there are restrictions: Anyone who has already used Messenger on Android and iPhone in parallel and now wants to merge their chats will be disappointed: If there is an old backup file of a chat on the device, it will be overwritten during the transfer, confirmed Whatsapp to “The Verge”. This even harbors the risk of losing the old chats completely: Cloud updates could then be overwritten with the new file. It remains to be seen whether this is the case.
In its current form, the transfer function is only intended for a very small circle. Anyone who only ever used iPhones and is now switching to a supported Android device for the first time should be happy. Everyone else has to hope that Whatsapp will adapt the way it works.
Hope could make an announcement from Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg. In an interview with the “WABetainfo” site, which specializes in Whatsapp news, he announced in June that Whatsapp support for several devices will be introduced at the same time in the near future. The biggest hurdle was the synchronization between the devices, he explained. But that has been solved. Should this also work across operating systems, the import function would soon be obsolete again.
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