Telegram has added the ability to import your chat history from WhatsApp, which means you will not lose previous conversations if you want to change from messaging service. On iOS, the feature came with version 7.4, which was released yesterday and was observed by 9to5Mac, but the update does not yet appear to be live on Android. In addition to WhatsApp, chat history from Line and KakaoTalk can also be imported, according to Telegram’s exchange list. We verified that you can import chats from WhatsApp to the latest version (7.4.1) of Telegram and continue the conversation, as long as every WhatsApp user has a Telegram account.
The addition of the feature comes as Telegram reports a huge increase in user numbers, and the service now has more than 500 million active users worldwide. The reason is apparently the new privacy policy of WhatsApp, which gives privacy considerations regarding the messaging app owned by Facebook (WhatsApp later delays the launch of the new policy, and insists that it will not affect the security of consumer chats or profile data) . For users who jump from WhatsApp to Telegram, this means they can take their chat history with them, one obstacle to switching is less.
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The import process works on a chat-by-chat basis, but seems to work for individual and group conversations, at least with WhatsApp. To enter a chat from Facebook’s messaging service, open the relevant conversation and tap the group or contact name at the top of the chat to open the info screen. From there, the “Export Chat” option opens the iOS share page, where you will see the option to select Telegram. Then just select a Telegram chat to enter the messages.
Any messages entered into chats have a small “imported” label that indicates when they were originally sent and when they were brought into Telegram, and messages are visible to all participants in the chat. You have the option to import WhatsApp chat histories with or without their images. Imported messages appear in the order in which they are entered, rather than in the order in which they were originally sent.
Telegram’s support for imported chat histories comes with a handful of other quality of life for the messaging service, such as adjusting the volume for individual participants in the voice chat, or reporting “fake groups or channels” trying to personify celebrities or organizations . .