How to Transfer your WhatsApp Messages to Telegram? Stepwise guide

According to the latest reports, Telegram was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide in January 2021, with 24% of India's total downloads. Telegram saw a rise in downloads at 63 million times last month, from which India's downloads stand at 15 million new Telegram users in January alone.

The swift increase of downloads could be correlated to WhatsApp's privacy policy update controversy sparked among its users and encouraged users to shift to Telegram. While TikTok came in a close second, Signal and Facebook, WhatsApp slid to the fifth position from its earlier third place, in January.

Many users have migrated to Telegram from WhatsApp due to the suspicion concerning their privacy and data. If you are one of the many who were forced to change their messages, you will be thankful for this.

Migrating from one messenger to another is a total drag. Many times you lose things, and you also have to start afresh. If you feel the same way, Telegram has a new feature — Import chats from WhatsApp. The steps are elementary, and here's how you can do it.

1. Open the WhatsApp chat you want to transfer to Telegram.

2. Tap on the three dots on your screen's top right corner and select more.

3. Tap Export Chat

4. The pop-up will ask you to restore with or without media. (Please select the option as per your preference as it will increase chat export size.)

5. Select Telegram from the Share menu

6. It will show you your telegram contacts, pick the same users and select Import.

Once done, you'd be able to see that particular WhatsApp chat on Telegram. Presently, you can only move conversations one by one, there's no way to move them over in bulk. You can also export group chats using the same method.

1. Open the chat you want to transfer and tap the area right beside the profile picture of contact on the top.
2. Select Export Chat and then Telegram in the Share menu.
3. There's also a faster way to achieve this by going to WhatsApp's main chat screen and then swiping left on a chat and then tapping Export Chat.
4. The messages that you import will include original timestamps and come with a flag at the bottom that says 'Imported'.

Another point to note here is that messages and media moved to Telegram will not hold extra space on your smartphone. Users can also optimise storage space and check cache size by tapping the Data and Storage Usage tab in Settings. It is a great way to keep your chats and media without going to check in back and forth between two apps.

Let us know in the comment section if you have used the imported feature and is it useful for you.