Telegram is looking to cash in on people looking to move to its platform from WhatsApp after the latter announced its new privacy policy by adding an option to import chats from WhatsApp. The company had pushed out an update to its iOS app earlier today with a tool that allowed one to move their history from WhatsApp, Line, and KakaoTalk to it.

However, the company then issued another update and removed all mentions of this chat import tool. It is likely that Telegram is still working on this new tool for now and had pushed the update accidentally.

WABetaInfo managed to play around with the feature and has detailed how it works. The tool is very simple to use. It requires one to first export their chats from WhatsApp which will be exported as a zip file. You can then open this file in Telegram via the iOS share sheet and import the chats to a conversation or group chat. All imported messages are marked as imported, with Telegram also informing users when chats are imported into a conversation.

After WhatsApp announced its new privacy policy for India at the beginning of this month, there has been an exodus of users from the platform. The company did push back the new privacy policy by three months following the backlash but that has not stopped users from trying out other platforms. Telegram is looking to capitalize on that by offering existing WhatsApp users an option to import their chats to Telegram.

We Want to Hear From You

Will you be able to convince your friends and family to move to Telegram from WhatsApp once you are able to import your chats from the latter?