Until recently carrying over WhatsApp chats from Android to iOS or vice-versa was almost impossible, unless you were ready to spend money on expensive software.

Switching between smartphones is quite an easy process nowadays. Most of the time, all it takes is just logging out from the old device and logging into the new one. And thanks to cloud backups, either Google or Apple take care of the rest.

However, the process becomes quite cumbersome if you’re switching between platforms. While it takes a bit more time and effort, it’s mostly streamlined, except for WhatsApp backups.

Until recently carrying over WhatsApp chats from Android to iOS or vice-versa was almost impossible, unless you were ready to spend money on expensive software. This hurdle was due to WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption feature. Android and iOS use different types of keys to encrypt WhatsApp chats, meaning they are incompatible with each other.

WhatsApp had been working on bringing a fix to this issue. A few months ago, the feature started rolling out to select Samsung devices. Now, the feature is widely rolling out to other Android devices.

However, there are some caveats still.

Any android running Android 12 will now support transferring WhatsApp chats between iOS and Android and vice-versa. Currently, the only devices on the market that ship with Android 12 out-of-the-box are Google’s Pixel 6 series.

The feature is also available on older devices that are updated to Android 12; however, stable Android 12 is currently only available on older Pixel phones. Meaning, if have any other android device, you will have to wait around for your OEM to push the stable update, assuming your device is even eligible for the update.

The feature was announced by Google in a blog post, just days after its Pixel devices were unveiled. The company doesn’t specify the reason why the feature is only available on Android 12 devices.

Presumably, it could be a Pixel exclusive feature, that could trickle down to older versions of hardware.