WhatsApp is working on options to take your message history with you when you switch from an iPhone to an Android device. Recent Samsung smartphones are now the first to support this. Otherwise it still doesn’t work.
The chat app lets you import messages from iOS on Samsung Android phones from now on. This includes chat history of individual contacts and groups, both texts and media sent/received, account information, your profile picture and settings. The copying does not take place via the cloud, the intention is that you connect both phones to each other with a usb-c-to-lightning cable.
An important note is that the feature is only available when you start WhatsApp for the first time after buying a new Samsung phone, or reset your current device to factory settings so that the chat app starts with a clean slate. In addition, version 3.7.22.1 of the Samsung Smart Switch app is required. WhatsApp on the iPhone must be at least version 2.21.160.17, and on Android you need at least version 2.21.16.20.
You can read further instructions on the WhatsApp site.
Also to other brands
What has made the transfer process difficult so far is that WhatsApp stores backups on iOS in Apple’s iCloud and on Android in Google Drive. The new method bypasses both cloud services.
Due to current requirements, bringing iOS chats to Android is restricted to only a small group of WhatsApp users. Work is still underway to bring the import option to other Android brands as well.
