WhatsApp May Let You Transfer Chats Between Android Devices Without Google Drive

Unlike rivals such as Telegram and Signal, transferring WhatsApp chats between your own devices has always been a chore due to the platform’s main selling point: end-to-end encryption for all personal messages that you send and receive. Throughout the years, the Meta-owned messaging service has been trying to introduce convenient ways to achieve this, with the most recent and notable ones being the ability to easily transfer your chat history from iOS to Android, and vice versa.

Now, a newly discovered version of chat transfer has been spotted by WABetaInfo in the latest beta build (2.23.1.26) of WhatsApp, which simplifies the steps even further. Most notably is excluding the need to rely on Google Drive, meaning that you can easily and securely transfer your chat history to a new device without having to back it up to the cloud first. However, it’s noted that this potentially upcoming feature only applies to when you’re switching over from one Android smartphone to another.

WABetaInfo also notes that this new version of chat transfer will require you to authorise certain device permissions in order to connect to your device. Though it is not known specifically what the criterias are, it’s possible that this is referring to some kind of authentication process such as QR code scanning or phone number verification. As most WhatsApp users are aware by now, the former approach is utilised by the platform’s Linked Devices function, whereas the latter is prompted when using the existing chat transfer feature.

Keep in mind this version is still under development, with no release date planned for the time being. On that note, there’s also the possibility where the finalised release may differ completely from what’s proposed in the current beta.

Removing the need to rely on Google Drive backups for chat transfers is a welcomed quality-of-life improvement, especially for users who find themselves switching between Android devices that they own. Hopefully, an iOS equivalent is in the works as well, as transferring your WhatsApp account between iPhones still involves downloading chat histories from iCloud in order to continue where you left off on your new device. It’s worth noting that using Apple’s Quick Start feature completely bypasses this, but this method only applies if you’re transferring all data from your current iPhone data to a newer one.

(Source: WABetaInfo)

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