The Telegram 7.4 update brought an important feature that allows you to transfer chats from WhatsApp, as well as from Line and KakaoTalk, to Telegram. It is handy because you won’t lose important conversations if you decide to switch to Telegram.
The new feature's announcement comes as the number of Telegram users increases, surpassing 500 million active users worldwide. Telegram says over 100 million users joined the messenger in January. This may well happen because of WhatsApp's new privacy policy, which concerns users of Facebook-owned messenger. Therefore, if users decide to leave WhatsApp over privacy concerns and start using Telegram, it is crucial to keep chats with them.
The feature is now available on both iOS and Android, and you need the latest version of the Telegram app to use it.
Here's how you can transfer chats on iOS:
- Open WhatsApp and choose a dialogue or group that you want to import into Telegram.
- Open the Group Info or Contact Info page in WhatsApp.
- In the contact info menu, tap Export chat.
- Further, if there are media files in the chat, WhatsApp will ask you whether to attach them or not – choose the option you need.
- Choose Telegram in the Share menu and select the contact or group you want to import the chat to.
- Then look at the beautiful animation of the chat transfer and wait for the import to complete. Done!
Here's how you can do it on Android:
- Open WhatsApp and choose a dialogue or group that you want to import into Telegram.
- Tap the three-dot button on the top right of a chat, then choose More > Export Chat.
- Further, if there are media files in the chat, WhatsApp will ask you whether to attach them or not – choose the option you need.
- Choose Telegram in the Share menu and select the contact or group you want to import the chat to.
- Then look at the beautiful animation of the chat transfer and wait for the import to complete. Done!
Every imported message has an “Imported” label on them, indicating when they were sent in the first place and when they were transferred to Telegram. All messages appear in the order they were imported in.
The Telegram update offers not only the ability to import your WhatsApp chat history to the messenger but also a bunch of other new features like reporting fake groups or channels, ability to adjust volumes for participants in voice chats, ability to delete calls and groups for both sides, new animations on Android, improved audio player, and more.