WhatsApp users may soon be able to transfer their WhatsApp chat history to a different phone number. The Facebook-owned mobile application will bring a slew of other improvements as well.

Migrating WhatsApp chat history from one phone to another can prove to be an arduous task. A previous backup on the handset or cloud service is required if you want to restore your chats from a new WhatsApp install.

Moreover, it needs to be from the same phone number, as well as the same platform. You can restore Android backups on Android only and iOS backups can only be restored on iOS.

WhatsApp chat history migration feature

It was recently teased that WhatsApp is working on a new feature that facilitates chat migration from iOS to Android and vice versa. However, WhatsApp chat history was still linked to your phone number.

Much to the delight of WhatsApp users, they might soon be able to transfer chat history to a different phone number. This update was first reported by WABetaInfo.

Living up to its reputation for unveiling unreleased WhatsApp features, WABetaInfo released new screenshots of the upcoming tool. The site shared a “Transfer to a different number?” link that is expected to take you to a tool that would transfer your chats and link them to a new phone number.

This is quite useful for those who are moving to a new phone. The feature will enable you to keep your chats rather than creating a new WhatsApp account.

WhatsApp currently has a feature that lets you switch phone numbers without deleting chats. Although it allows you to transfer your chats from one phone to another, the chats are kept only until the phone number change is completed on the same phone.

What else do the screenshots reveal?

According to the site, WhatsApp was working on a myriad of other improvements that will be added to the feature ahead of its launch. However, the screenshots hint at several other things.

First off, users will not be able to transfer their chat history at any time. This process can be started only after linking a new Android phone to a WhatsApp account.

You do not need to worry about migrating the media separately to the Android device. Your WhatsApp chat history will be fully migrated along with the media.

The ability to transfer your chat history to another phone number is very useful. The process to change the phone number will be automatically launched before chat history migration starts.

While no release date has been confirmed yet, WABetaInfo suggests the new feature will be rolled out as part of a future update.