Move WhatsApp from Android to iPhone. Keep your iPhone as it is.
A free, open-source tool that brings your chats, photos, replies and reactions to an iPhone you've already set up. No factory reset, no paid app, nothing uploaded.
The guided Mac app is in progress. The source code will be published here soon.
Switching phones shouldn't cost you your chats, or your setup
Free, but erases the iPhone
- Only runs during first-time setup
- Means redoing apps, accounts and settings
No reset, but closed
- Usually a paid licence
- Your whole chat history passes through software you can't inspect
No reset, and open
- Free, GPL-licensed source code
- Runs entirely on your own computer
- Same technique as the paid apps
Four steps, all on your computer
WhatsApp keeps your history in a database on each phone, in a different format on each. The tool translates one into the other and hands it to the iPhone through a normal iPhone backup.
Copy
Copies WhatsApp's backup and media from the Android over USB. The Android is only read, never changed.
Unlock
Decrypts the backup with the 64-digit key from WhatsApp's own end-to-end encrypted backup.
Translate
Writes every message, photo, reply and reaction into WhatsApp's iPhone format, inside an encrypted backup of your iPhone.
Restore
Restores that backup to the iPhone. Apps, settings and accounts come back as they were, now with your WhatsApp history.
What you'll do, start to finish
Plan an afternoon the first time. Most of it is waiting on copies. You need a Mac and a working cable for each phone.
-
About 15 minutes
Prepare the Android
- Turn on end-to-end encrypted backup in WhatsApp and choose the 64-digit key.
- Tap Back up, then move on to the iPhone straight away.
- Turn on USB debugging and plug the phone in.
Messages that reach the Android after this backup won't transfer, so keep the gap short.
-
About 15 minutes
Set up WhatsApp on the iPhone
- Install WhatsApp and register your same number. Skip the iCloud restore.
- Turn off Find My for now. Apple refuses restores while it's on.
- Set Auto-Lock to Never during the transfer, and choose a backup password.
-
About 30 minutes
Try a pilot with two chats
- The tool suggests two chats with photos, replies and reactions.
- It restores just those, so you can check them on the iPhone before moving everything.
-
About an hour, mostly waiting
Move everything
- A fresh iPhone backup, then the full conversion and checks, then the restore.
- The iPhone restarts. Sign in, open WhatsApp, and your history is there.
WhatsApp messages that arrive on the iPhone during the transfer are lost there. Senders can resend.
-
A few minutes
Check and tidy up
- Scroll back through a big chat, open old photos, check a group.
- Turn Find My, Stolen Device Protection and Auto-Lock back on.
- After a week of using the iPhone, delete the tool's work folder. It holds your decrypted chats.
Built so a mistake is never permanent
Your Android stays untouched
The tool only reads from it. Your chats remain there until you decide to reset the phone, so you can always start over.
An undo button for the iPhone
Before changing anything, the tool keeps an untouched copy of your iPhone backup. One command puts the phone back exactly as it was.
Nothing leaves your computer
No accounts, no uploads, no servers. Your key and backup password are read from files on your Mac and never logged.
Checked before it touches the phone
Every conversion is verified offline first: database integrity, every message present, no duplicates, every photo where it belongs.
What comes across
| Item | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Messages, one-to-one and group chats | Moves | With original dates and senders |
| Photos, videos, voice notes, documents | Moves | Files already deleted from the Android can't be recovered |
| Replies (quoted messages) | Moves | Shown with the grey quote box |
| Emoji reactions | Moves | Yours and other people's |
| Search | Works | WhatsApp indexes the old messages in the background, within a couple of hours |
| Polls and events | As text | Shown as a labelled message |
| Call history, status updates | Not yet |
First real migration, October 2026
Pixel 9 Pro (Android 17) to iPhone (iOS 27). 105 chats, including 38 groups, back to 2016. One pair of phones proves the method works, not that it works everywhere, so the guide asks you to keep your Android until you've checked the result.
iPhone to Android
The same idea in reverse: read the iPhone backup, write WhatsApp's Android format, and let WhatsApp restore it from a local backup. No phone reset in either direction.
- Read WhatsApp's iPhone database
- Write WhatsApp's Android database
- Round trip matches the original on all 194,863 messages
- Copy photos and videos to the Android
- Test the restore on a real Android phone
FAQ
Is it really free?
Yes. It's GPL-3 licensed open source. There's no paid tier and no account.
Do I need to root the Android or jailbreak the iPhone?
No. It uses WhatsApp's own encrypted backup on the Android and a normal encrypted backup of the iPhone, the same kind Finder makes.
Will I lose anything on the iPhone?
Apps, photos, settings and accounts come back after the restore, because the backup includes them. The one thing to know: WhatsApp messages that arrive on the iPhone between the backup and the restore are lost there, so keep that window short.
Why do I have to turn off Find My?
Apple refuses to restore any backup while Find My is on. Turn it off for the transfer and back on straight after. If the switch is greyed out, turn off Stolen Device Protection first.
Why encrypted iPhone backups?
An encrypted backup includes your saved passwords, Wi-Fi and Apple Pay cards. Restoring an unencrypted one loses them and can leave the phone asking for your Apple Account password over and over.
Does it work on Windows?
The code is cross-platform, but so far it has only been tested on a Mac. Windows support is planned and will be labelled experimental at first.
Is this made by WhatsApp or Apple?
No. It's an independent community project and isn't affiliated with or endorsed by WhatsApp, Meta or Apple.