NEW DELHI: Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Friday announced a secure way to transfer WhatsApp chat history between devices on the same operating system.

For the first time, users can preserve their complete chat and media history without having to exit the app.

“More secure than using unofficial third party apps which lack clear privacy practices, and more private than cloud services, the transfer process is authenticated with a QR code, data is only shared between your two devices, and is fully encrypted during transfer,” said Zuckerberg.

It’s faster than backing up and restoring your chat history and you can now also transfer large media files and attachments, which were usually too large to keep.

According to the company, if you’re ready to transfer your chats, make sure you have both devices physically with you, connected to Wi-Fi and location enabled.

On your old phone, go to Settings, then Chats and Chat transfer and scan the QR code shown on the screen with your new phone to complete the process.

“If you want to move your WhatsApp chats to a new phone, you can now do it more privately without your chats ever leaving your devices,” said Zuckerberg.