WhatsApp’s new privacy policy has managed to create quite a stir that has led to a mass exodus of users from the platform. Privacy concerns have led many WhatsApp users to switch to Signal which lays a great deal of emphasis on privacy. If you are also looking to make the jump, check out our guide below to know how you can transfer your group chats from WhatsApp to Signal.
Both WhatsApp and Signal do not offer any tool to import or export chats to other platforms. What this means is that you cannot export your group WhatsApp chats to Signal. Since the latter relies on end-to-end encryption, it would not have been possible to import chats from WhatsApp to Signal anyway. Nonetheless, if you are looking to move your group chats from WhatsApp to Signal and are ready to give up on your conversations for that, follow the guide below.
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It goes without saying that you’ll first have to join Signal before you can create a group and invite your friends and family in group chats on WhatsApp over to it. Your friends and family members will also have to join Signal so that they can join the group chat.
Move Your WhatsApp Group Chats to Signal
Step 1: Open Signal (Download) and tap the pencil symbol on the top-right corner. From the menu that opens up, tap New Group.
Step 2: You can then add your friends and family that are already on Signal to the group. Alternatively, you can tap the Skip button on the top-right corner and just create a group on Signal for now.
Step 3: Enter a Group name. This is required cannot be skipped. Tap the Create button after that.
Step 4: Before adding members to the group, you have the option to approve new members before they can join the group. Depending on your preference, enable or disable this option.
Step 5: Tap the Enable and Share Link option. A dialog box will pop up which will give you various options to share the group chat link: Signal, Copy Link, QR Code, and more. Simply use the Share option if you want to share the group link in WhatsApp, Messages, or any other messaging platform.
It will be a bit cumbersome to get your friends and other contacts to leave WhatsApp and switch to Signal. However, once you do so, you’ll have that peace of mind knowing that your chat data is completely safe and secure. Even if all your contacts do not move over to Signal, you can always move your important and sensitive conversation over to it for privacy reasons.
Do remember that since Signal chats are end-to-end encrypted, they will only be available on one device. If you switch to another device, you will end up losing all your Signal chat data. This also means that you cannot access your Signal chats on your PC or laptop. Signal also misses out on a lot of features compared to WhatsApp but the company is working on adding many new features as quickly as possible.
