WhatsApp has on Wednesday unveiled a new feature which enables users to transfer their chat history — including voice notes, photos, and conversation– if they switch from iOS to Android phone or vice versa.

Until now in the case of any change from an iPhone to an Android phone, or vice versa, meant that users had to go in for third-party apps, take complicated steps, or else just lose their chat history.

WhatsApp made the announcement at the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, and at first, users will be able to use the feature to migrate their chat history from iPhones to Samsung phones, starting with the new foldables from the South Korean tech giant. Samsung expects the new feature to enable it to attract iPhones users.

However, the feature will be available for both iOS and Android and will work in both directions soon, WhatsApp said.

"WhatsApp will be introducing the ability to move your entire WhatsApp chat history — including voice notes, photos, and conversations — in a seamless and secure way if you choose to switch mobile operating systems," the company said in its announcement. "The feature means that people will be able to switch between the platforms of their choice, and take their WhatsApp history with them."

"The feature will be available to users of both Android and iOS systems — which means that people will be able to switch from both Android to iOS, and from iOS to Android. It will start to roll out on Android initially, and on Samsung's newest Galaxy phones to start. Users will be able to take their WhatsApp history from iOS to an Android device, and will subsequently be able to do the same on iOS devices."

"Your WhatsApp messages belong to you. That's why they are stored on your phone by default, and not accessible in the cloud like many other messaging services," said Sandeep Paruchuri, product manager at WhatsApp. "We're excited for the first time to make it easy for people to securely transfer their WhatsApp history from one operating system to another. This has been one of our most requested features from users for years and we worked together with operating systems and device manufacturers to solve it."