Private chat app Telegram has seen its userbase soar in recent weeks as people look for an alternative to WhatsApp.
Some WhatsApp users have turned their back since it was announced there will be greater level of data sharing with Facebook, even though this doesn’t affect us in the UK.
Telegram says it now boasts over 500 million active users worldwide and has recently made it much easier to bring over chat history from WhatsApp for anyone thinking of switching.
If you’re using an iPhone, you’ll need to be running the latest version of iOS (7.4.1) to take advantage.
Importing your history works on a chat-by-chat basis and is the same for individual chats as it is for group chats.
- To start with, open the relevant conversation then tap on the group or contact name at the top.
- From there, look for an ‘Export Chat’ option which will open the iOS Share Sheet.
- You then need to select Telegram from the list of options and choose which chat you want to import the message to.
- If you’re using an Android phone then you’ll find the ‘Export Chat’ option by tapping the three-dot menu button in the top right corner of the chat and then selecting ‘More’.
‘Messages will be imported into the current day but will also include their original timestamps. All members of the chat on Telegram will see the messages,’ explained the Telegram team in a blog post.
Any messages imported will have a small ‘imported’ label on them, noting when they were first sent.
The option to import chats was added to Telegram alongside a slew of other new features to help it rival WhatsApp – which is currently the biggest chat app in the world.
Telegram isn’t the only player in town, though. Rival service Signal has also reported a huge increase in numbers as people search for alternatives to WhatsApp.
