This article was published on August 10, 2020

WhatsApp might finally sync your chats between iOS and Android


WhatsApp might finally sync your chats between iOS and Android Image by: Allie/Unsplash

One of the things people worry about when switching from Android to iOS or vice versa is syncing their WhatsApp chat logs — it simply doesn’t work nearly as well as when you’re moving to a new device on the same platform. There are a few apps that claim to do it, but they’re all hit or miss. However, WhatsApp might be finally working on letting you sync chats between platforms.

According to a post by WABetaInfo, the company has started working on the feature in the background. The post notes that this is baked into functionality that will let you use a single account — in WhatsApp’s case, your phone number — on multiple devices.

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The current development suggests that you’ll be able to use one number on four devices for WhatsApp. So when this functionality is available, WhatsApp will also build an option to let you sync chat between devices. But it may require you to use a Wi-Fi connection, because of the sheer amount of data you’ll likely need for uploading and download all your chats, photos, videos, and other shared content.

While WABetaInfo tested the syncing function on the desktop client, the post notes that it will work on mobile devices too. Once the transfer is complete, you’ll be able to enjoy continuity across all your linked devices.

Some other apps such as Facebook Messenger and Slack already allow that. However, it’s important to note that those accounts might be linked to your email ID as compared to the phone number as an ID approach of WhatsApp.

As this feature is early in development, there’s no fixed released date as to when it’ll appear on our devices.

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