Nowadays, one of the most used applications, WhatsApp, is actively working on a feature that will permit its users of Android to export and import their chat backups on the offline platform from Google Drive. A screenshot has been shared by WABetaInfo regarding the same. The backup will include the full chat history, images, videos, and other media files. This feature has been in the development stage since the month of fi June 2022, but the latest development on this update suggests that WhatsApp is pretty much keen to launch for beta testing in the near future.
Recently, WhatsApp introduced a new update through the Google Play Beta Program, bringing the version up to 2.22.20.10. in the posted screenshot, it was mentioned that “If the user exported a backup from their previous device, they could import it now.” This is a new/additional step that the user has to perform when they either reinstall WhatsApp on their phone or when switching their handset. If the option to import is selected, it will start restoring the data from Google Drive to the local storage of the devices.
The feature will come in handy when the user of the same doesn’t have an internet connection or high-speed Wi-Fi. A local backup will automatically be created by WhatsApp in order to export a backup to import it later. In real-time, there is no option to import a local backup. WhatsApp allows its users to import a backup from the Google account linked to the device when they set it up on a new handset.
The feature to export and import backup locally was primarily seen in FY22. WABetaInfo stated that WhatsApp backups on Google Drive would get limited storage allocation. With effect to this, the users would be allowed to import their chat backups if they reach the particular threshold on Google Drive and store their backed-up data offline on their device. With the help of this new feature, the users would also be able to upload their chat backups back to Google Drive when they have adequate space available.
WhatsApp will also offer a similar functioning for WhatsApp for iOS after it is released for WhatsApp for Android. The WhatsApp features tracker further notes that the feature is still in the developmental stage. Thus, the feature is still not ready to be released to beta testers. The date of the introduction is yet to be announced by WhatsApp.
