The world’s most popular messaging service, with more than two billion users, has a somewhat baffling flaw. But why? According to WhatsApp, it’s because of a technical knot that’s fiendishly difficult to unpick. “There is a difference in the formats in which the data is stored in the Android and iOS apps, as the database schemas are different”, a spokesperson explains. On an iPhone, iOS backs up WhatsApp chats to iCloud. On Android, backups go to Google Drive. And the two systems don’t like talking to one another.
Simply put, the two backup formats are completely different to one another. That’s mostly down to security. Create a backup for WhatsApp on an iPhone and the file is created to be securely stored on iCloud. Do the same on Android and the file is created to be securely stored on Google Drive. But as the two systems have different security requirements, it isn’t currently possible to transfer one backup to another operating system.
James Temperton
I stumbled upon this complication almost two years ago, when I decided to abandon the iPhone and switch to Android, and it’s disappointing to see nothing has improved since. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a reason not to switch phones, but it’s certainly one of the bigger headaches. At the time, I also searched in vain for a decent solution to migrate my WhatsApp chat history, but in the end I resigned myself to simply making manual backups of more important conversations.
As for the cloud backup explanation… I’m not sure what to make of it. Seems to me, the simplest solution would be to let users choose where to store chat backups, to have both iCloud and Google Drive as backup options on both iOS and Android. This way, when someone plans to switch platforms, they can just upload a fresh backup to the new cloud provider on the old phone, then restore the backup on the new phone. At the same time, I’m almost certain Apple doesn’t allow competing cloud providers on their platform, at least not as backup options, to protect their monopoly on services on iOS, nor do they provide access to integrate iCloud on other operating systems. This is one of the many, many, areas where regulators should intervene to prevent user-hostile behavior from big companies, in the interest on interoperability. Amusingly, Apple and Google managed to cooperate just fine recently on their joint coronavirus tracing API, but somehow I doubt they are willing to go that far where real money and market share is at stake.
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