Apple And Meta To Move Whatsapp Data From Android To iPhone

Apple and Whatsapp, a company of the Meta group (formerly Facebook ), have collaborated to carry out a procedure for transferring data from an old Android phone to a new iPhone. The system works now only limited to Android Whatsapp users with the latest beta version, but it will soon be extended to all users after updating through the Play Store. To work, the procedure also requires that the new iPhone to be configured is version 15.5 (update released in May) or later and that the Apple app Move to iOS has been installed on Android.

The Old Procedure

The Move to iOS app was already present on iOS for some time. Following the procedure indicated by Apple, it allows you to move a series of data from Android to a new iPhone during the first configuration phase of the new Apple phone. The two phones must be close and on the same network, and the Move to iOS app must be active on Android. At that point, follow the instructions. 

The consequence of the old procedure was that it allowed moving photos, contacts, calendars and other things from the Android to the respective iOS series applications. Furthermore, with this mechanism, Apple also verified the presence of free apps on Android and, after matching them on the App Store to verify their correspondence, optionally offered them as a download. All this remains unchanged, only that now a new function has been added that allows new Apple users to have the data of their Android phone also for Whatsapp.

The New Procedure

The possibility of transferring data occurs, as we have said, if the Android user has not only installed the Move to iOS app from Apple but is also in possession of the most updated version of Whatsapp, which is currently in a closed beta version, but which will soon be available to a broader audience. The transfer takes place wirelessly between the two devices, and the time varies depending on the data that needs to be moved: for very “heavy” accounts, it can take a long time.

The procedure is safe in the sense that the Whatsapp app is opened by Move to iOS and requires the user’s authorization (who can thus check if the machine is, in fact, not active if the approval is not requested), after which it is created an encrypted file that is securely transferred between the two devices and loaded by the Whatsapp app for iOS, the only one that can unpack it and use its contents. It is thus impossible to have an “interception” by other apps, nor by mistake a view of the contents by the person making the transfer (unless they can open the app).

What It Means For Apple

Whatsapp has long been trying to fill an incredible “void”, that is, using two incompatible data storage systems on Android and iOS. Now, if nothing else, it is possible to move the data in one direction when the phone is first configured (the procedure cannot be used when the phone has already been configured). It still needs to be determined whether there is a similar procedure in reverse, or at least Apple says it is unaware of it.

It also needs to be clarified whether this procedure, which involves a third-party app, is based on a series of mechanisms built on purpose or whether Apple has engineered APIs that will allow other third-party developers present on both platforms to automate. Data migration from Android to iOS. The option for Whatsapp currently does not work for Whatsapp Business accounts.

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