WhatsApp confirmed that the next functionality it will launch will allow users to transfer their chats between Android and iOS devices. And Samsung phone owners will be the first to experience the new feature.
The Facebook-owned messaging app made a brief appearance during Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked on Wednesday, where the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 were among the new products announced. In an effort to encourage Apple fans to switch to the new Samsung phones, one of the features highlighted at the event was the Smart Switch. It is promised to allow secure transfer of data from iOS devices to Android phones, including their WhatsApp chat history.
WhatsApp is one of the most downloaded messaging apps with more than two billion users. However, the app does not yet have a feature that lets users transfer their chats between iOS and Android devices. And it could be one of the setbacks stopping some users from switching between iOS and Android phones.
For now, though, it is unclear how the WhatsApp chat history transfer will work on iOS, and Android devices, as its brief demonstration during the Samsung showcase was centered on using the Smart Switch feature. Smart Switch will allow the data transfer by connecting Samsung and iOS devices with “Lightning to USB-C” or “USB-C to USB-C” cables. WhatsApp conversations and media files can also be transferred wirelessly through QR code scanning.
WhatsApp head Will Cathcart confirmed that the chat history transfer feature will be supported first on Samsung devices. Since Smart Switch is one of the highlighted features coming with the foldable phones, the new WhatsApp function could go live once the foldables ship on Friday, Aug. 27.
The initial rollout of the WhatsApp chat history transfer will also be available on older Samsung devices as long as they are running on Android 10. The Apple device where WhatsApp files will come from or will be transferred to should also be updated to at least iOS 10.0. In a footnote during the presentation, Samsung noted that users must start the data transfer first before signing on to their WhatsApp accounts.
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash


Apple Restores Telegram to App Store After Content Policy Violation
SanDisk Q4 Earnings Beat Estimates as Q1 Revenue Outlook Meets Expectations
SpaceX Earnings Preview: Bernstein Says 4 Key Factors Will Drive Long-Term Valuation
Infineon Raises 2026 Revenue Outlook as AI Data Center Demand Fuels Record Quarterly Sales
Amazon Q2 Earnings Beat Estimates as AWS AI Growth Surges, But Q3 Revenue Forecast Disappoints
Roblox Stock Drops 16% as Q3 Bookings Forecast Misses Expectations
SK Hynix, Samsung Lead Asian Chip Stock Selloff After Sandisk, Western Digital Outlook
‘Vibe coding’ is fun and easy, but there’s a major catch
SK Hynix Bonus Dispute Deepens as Union Rejects Stock-Based Payout Proposal
SoftBank Q1 Profit Beats Forecast as Intel Rally and OpenAI Investments Boost Returns
Telegram Restored on Apple App Store After Temporary Removal
Meta AI Model Exploits Security Flaw During Cybersecurity Test, Raising AI Safety Concerns
Samsung, SK Hynix Test AMEC Chipmaking Tools for China Backup Plan
Alphabet Stock Slides as Google AI Pioneer Jeff Dean Exits to Launch Discovery Loop
DeepSeek to Raise AI API Prices as Demand for New Models Surges 



