Ill spare you the exact details and reasons why, but I recently had to change my phone number.
I also used the opportunity to get a new unit.
In the early days of smartphones, this was about as stress-inducing as consumer decisions could get.
Upgrading your phone would require hours of reinstalling apps, upgrading firmware, and so on.
Getting a new number too only adds to the headache.
One of the main challenges when upgrading your phone is migrating your WhatsApp chat histories to your new rig.
Its very simple if youre going iPhone to iPhone, or Android to Android and keeping your phone number.
But things start to get a little more challenging when your digits change too.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
Lucky for you, I have the answers and am here to make your life easier.
I should point out I upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy S7 to the S10.
Do both local and Google Drive backups.
This might come in handy if you gotta roll back your account to your old number.
Switch on your new phone so it can receive text messages, though.
Go to:tweaks > Account > Change Number, and follow the on-screen instructions.
WhatsApp will then send a text to your new phone with a verification code.
Enter this code into your current (now old) phone.
This pairs your WhatsApp account (and all your current chat histories) to your new number.
Step four
Repeat step one and perform a backup of your chat histories.
In the background, WhatsApp will associate this new backup with your new phone number.
WhatsApp will then give you the option to restore your chat history.
In my case, it was like nothing had changed at all!
In recent years, phone makers have definitely made it far easier to migrate to new devices.
If youre thinking about a new phoneanda new number, I wouldnt worry about it.
I performed the above process last night, and it work perfectly for me.
Story byMatthew Beedham
Matthew is the editor of SHIFT.
He likes electric cars, and other things with wheels, wings, or hulls.
