The management over at WhatsApp – or should we say Facebook Inc. – made some pretty lousy new year’s resolutions. They made some changes to their privacy policy. Among those changes is the fact that WhatsApp will share user data with its parent company Facebook.
Suppose you have been keeping your ears and eyes open to reports by security experts. Then you must have heard several times Facebook being accused of spying on users, gathering data on users, and using the information to tailor targeted ads.
That aside, you might have been talking about wishing you could buy a particular commodity. It could have been over the phone or with someone you are seated with in the same room. The next time you open the Facebook app on your phone, you keep getting ads about the commodity you were discussing. Could that be a coincidence?
WhatsApp broke its promise
Although these are mostly allegations being thrown around, WhatsApp will now be sharing users’ data with Facebook has made many people concerned. To many, WhatsApp has become the main communication channel for talking to family, friends, and even for work.
The ease of using the app has made it the most popular instant messaging app around the world. The news that they will start sharing users’ data with Facebook has led to a mass migration of users to alternative messaging apps. When Facebook acquired WhatsApp back in 2014, WhatsApp assured users it would maintain its earlier policy of knowing “as little as possible” about its users.
Six years down the line, it seems board room politics led to a revisit of that stand. Going forward, WhatsApp will not only be actively gathering users’ data. It will also be sharing that data with Facebook.
WhatsApp’s Loss, Telegram’s Gain
In the last 72 hours of January 19, 2021, which was just a few days after WhatsApp announced the changes, Telegram registered over 25 million new users. That gives you an idea of just how big the backlash the announcement was for WhatsApp.
Telegram is riding that wave as much as it can before it dies down. Telegram has just announced its latest update will allow users to migrate chat history from WhatsApp, Line, and KakaoTalk. That means you can now move all your chat history from WhatsApp and have them on Telegram.
Import Individual and Group chats
Telegram, which now enjoys over 500 million active users globally, enabled this feature to remove barriers for those contemplating migrating. It will be less difficult for a user to migrate from WhatsApp to Telegram knowing they will be going with all their chat history.
The ability to import chat history works on both individual and group conversations. To migrate your chat, it works on a chat-by-chat basis, launch your WhatsApp app. Go to the specific conversation you want to export to Telegram, tab on the top of the chat, followed by ‘Export Chat’, and you should see the option to export to Telegram.
The steps mentioned above vary a little on iOS and Android, but it is reasonably straightforward.
Five alternative messaging apps if the planned WhatsApp Ads will irritate you
Five alternative messaging apps if the planned WhatsApp Ads will irritate you
