First of all, I think I've added a couple of brand new gray hairs trying to sort through all of the information available on the interwebs.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging solution out there, and though its possible to transfer messages from the same platform seamlessly (iPhone to iPhone; Android to Android), it's a lot trickier moving between the two beasts. This method should take about 30 minutes, the biggest bulk of time being the backup.
Let's just say I sorted through four hours of tutorials to make this easy. You're welcome.
(This isn't also a completely free solution so be forewarned. It'll cost $3.49 for an app but honestly, the time and headache you will save is so worth it. Even if you're making the U.S. minimum wage at a paltry $7.25, it will definitely take more than 30 minutes to cheap it out. There are definitely several hours of my life I want back.)
It is very important that even the slightest change in software or platform can mess everything up. The one mantra to learn in tech: backup, backup, backup. At every single juncture if you possibly can.
This tutorial assumes a couple of things:
- The user is a Windows user.
- There are old iPhone messages.
- The new WhatsApp will be used on a brand-new Android device.
Backup up everything on the iPhone
No, not on iCloud but as an actual, unencrypted file on the computer. Meaning, open up iTunes.
Go to iPhone settings, scroll down to Automatically Back Up, select This computer, and make sure Encrypt iPhone backup is not checked. The backup can be potentially a colossal file (like 15 GB) so make sure there is space on the computer.
Download iPhone Backup Browser (always scan things to be safe; iExplorer and iBackup Viewer are also options), which will let then let you extract those iPhone messages. The goal here is to get to the file ChatStorage.sqlite.
These Wazzap Migrator screenshots should guide you through the process:
Buy Wazzap Migrator on Google Play
Download Wazzap Migrator. How much more do I need to convince you to just get it? Using the previous assumption that I make $7.25 per hour—which I don't—and spent four hours tinkering around, it actually cost me $29 in pure time. I could have saved myself $25.51 in pure time if I had bought it!
Final installation and migration process
The next step is getting ChatStorage.sqlite to the phone. For the sake of efficiency, I emailed it to myself and downloaded the file.
Install WhatsApp and go through the process. Assuming this is a fresh install, there's not much you have to do here.
Then open up Wazzap Migrator. Use these screenshots to guide you the process.
Once you finish, Wazzap will let you know to uninstall Whatsapp and to reinstall it from the data. That's it.