tech2 News StaffAug 02, 2019 17:41:01 IST

WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in India with over 200 million active users. When you switch your phone and are installing WhatsApp on a new phone, not many may want to start a fresh instance of WhatsApp. A lot of us want to transfer our WhatsApp chat histories on to the new device.

The only way you can do that is by backing up your WhatsApp chat history on Google Drive on your Android phones. This lets you restore the data whenever required. Switching phones is also not a big issue when you already have backed up the WhatsApp chats on the Drive.

Let's see how it all works.

Image: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic - RC16FAE1EA70

How to backup WhatsApp chats on Google Drive

Step 1: Open WhatsApp and go to the "Menu" displayed at the top right corner

Step 2 Select Settings > Chats

Step 3: Go to the "Chat backup"

Step 4: Go to "Back up to Google Drive" and select the preferred time that you want to back up the chats

Step 5: Select the Gmail account on which you to backup the chats

Step 6: Choose if you want to back up the chats on Wi-Fi or both on Wi-Fi and cellular network under "Back up over" option

Step 7: You can turn on the radio button if you want to "Include videos" option ie. backup your videos in WhatsApp messages on Drive

How to restore WhatsApp chats from Google Drive

Step 1: After downloading WhatsApp and ensuring you have the same SIM Card to verify the number, open WhatsApp and select "Agree and continue"

Step 2: Select "Continue" if you want to sync all the contacts to WhatsApp, else select "Not now"

Step 3: Verify your phone number and country code

Step 4: After the verification is done, select "Continue" so that WhatsApp can access Google Drive data

Step 5: Allow WhatsApp to check Google Drive for a backup by selecting "Give Permission"

Step 6: Ensure you are using the same Google credentials as the ones that were used to backup WhatsApp data to Google Drive. Select the account that you need to retrieve the backup from

Step 7: Select "Restore" and fill up your profile as you did the first time. It will take a while to back up your chat history, depending on the file size. You can also let the retrieving happen in the background and begin chatting away