Messaging app Telegram has added a new feature enabling users to migrate their chat history from competing apps like WhatsApp, and it comes at an opportune time.
As millions of WhatsApp users question their future relationship with the app over an incoming privacy policy change, the makers of Telegram have spied an opportunity to increase it’s market share beyond the 100 million additional users it has added this month.
However, likely inhibiting the decision to depart from WhatsApp Island is leaving behind all of those year’s-long group chats and archived messages from loved ones. Now iPhone and Android WhatsApp users can export their chats to their new home on Telegram, or so the theory goes.
In a blog post on the matter, Telegram explains how to migrate entire chats so contacts can seamlessly pick up the thread. The app says all messages will continue to bear their original timestamps and include attachments like media and documents. All members of the chat will then see the messages if they have Telegram installed.
The process is explained below:
To move a chat from WhatsApp on iOS, open the Contact Info or Group Info page in WhatsApp, tap Export Chat, then choose Telegram in the Share menu.
On Android, open a WhatsApp chat, tap ⋮ > More > Export Chat, then choose Telegram in the Share menu.
As well as WhatsApp, the export option is also available to users on Line and KakaoTalk users as Telegram seeks to bring in more users from services around the world.
Telegram isn’t the only app benefitting from the wariness surrounding WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, which requires users to offer more access to the Facebook parent company. Signal suffered a major outage earlier this month as new users surged onto the platform.
For its part, WhatsApp says the changes do not require any further user data to be shared with Facebook, but has delayed the introduction of the policy for a few months as it seeks to clarify the situation and clear up what calls “confusion” surrounding the matter.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
