The Cambridge Analytica scandal made a lot of people think about deleting Facebook. Since then, Facebook has vowed to improve how it protects its users data. It’s also made it possible for users that use other apps that it owns to download their personal data. A lot of other apps and services have followed suit e.g. you can download your data from Apple. Whatsapp is the latest app to come into this fold. You can now download your Whatsapp account information.
Update to the latest version of Whatsapp in order to download your account information. This feature is available for both iOS and Android users. It is not available on the Whatsapp Windows 10 app, nor is it available on the web version.
Open Whatsapp and go to the Settings tab. Tap Account, and on the Account screen, tap ‘Request Account Info’.
On the Request Account Info screen, you will see a ‘Request Report’ button. Tap it to request a report of your account information. The information will be ready in 3 days tops which indicates that there isn’t that much data stored. It’s important to note that if you make any changes to your account e.g., if you delete it, change your password, or change the phone number associated with your account, the request will be cancelled.
You will have to send the request again though Whatsapp doesn’t say if your data will be altered by any of these changes. It stands to reason that if you change the phone number associated with your account, it’s a pretty significant change which practically makes it so that you have a new or different account. The request is annulled by such a change and it may be also impact what data is available. What’s we’re saying, to be on the safe side, get a copy of your Whatsapp account information before you make any of these changes. You can always change your password or phone number later and request a fresh copy of your account information.
If your change your phone number or password and it impacts what information you can download, it’s highly unlikely that you will be able to undo it later. The account information does not include your chats; active or archived. It will likely include your profile picture, your name, phone numbers, your contacts, some location data, and perhaps your data usage stats. If you’re looking to download a copy of your chats, you’re going to have to create a backup and email it to yourself. Whatsapp has a built-in tool that lets you do this so it’s pretty simple.
