Francis Muli
A lot of users are currently leaving Whatsapp for their competitors, Signal and Telegram. This is due to Whatsapp’s latest update that is delivered through a pop-up asking users to agree to its terms or delete their accounts.
The updated terms indicate that Whatsapp will now share your data with Facebook. Maybe Whatsapp did not see this coming, but users are choosing to delete their accounts.
Signal and Telegram have both recorded high volumes of new registrations since the announcement last week. They are promising improved privacy and security to woo even more users to their platforms.
Tesla founder Elon Musk went as far as sending out a tweet urging users to ditch Whatsapp and join Signal. The company today revealed that the number of downloads had reached 50 million in January 2021 compared to 10 million a year ago. Telegram has reported that it has 500 million active users currently.
Read: Whatsapp Reassures Users of Privacy Despite Policy Update
The question on everyone’s mind is how to make that move. After chatting for years on Whatsapp, exchanging photos, videos and documents on the platform, making the shift may seem like a complicated move, except that its not.
For starters, you may be worried about the amount of data that Whatsapp has collected. Chances are it really is not a big deal if you can dim down the public uproar. Whatsapp issued a statement saying your privacy was still at the core of its service and that there is nothing to worry about. But you need to be sure.
Luckily, you can check exactly what information Whatsapp has collected on the app.
- Simply Open WhatsApp and head over to ‘settings’.
- Go to the ‘Account’ section and tap on the ‘Request account info’ option.
- Once you tap on Request, Whatsapp will receive your request and give you a notification letting you know that your information will be available in 3 days (They will give you a date)
- Ensure that you do not delete your Whatsapp before the three days elapse so that you can get the full report, otherwise, you will not be able to view the data whatsapp has collected from you.
Read also: Telegram Users Spike Following Whatsapp Data Sharing Update
Once you get the data, you may be satisfied and choose to stay on the app, or you may choose to delete and move on to a different messaging app.
If you are worried about losing your data, you will be happy to note that you can download your data from each chat. This gives you the freedom to pick out the most important chats with information that you wish to maintain.
To download, open a personal chat and click on the three dotted lines on the right and select ‘export chat’. Whatsapp will then ask you whether you want to export everything including photos, videos and all files and data exchanged with your contact.
Read also: WhatsApp’s Latest Data Sharing Policy Update Prompting Users To Join Competitor, “Signal”
If you choose to include media, Whatsapp will then prompt you with options for a file destination including Google Drive, Gmail, or to any other app.
You can then begin the export where you can then store your data.
How to Delete you Whatsapp Account
Once you have downloaded all important data, you can then go ahead to delete Whatsapp.
- Open your Whatsapp
- Click on the three dots on the top right hand side.
- Click on ‘settings’
- From settings, click on ‘account’
- There you will find the option to delete your whatsapp account.
- Click on it and the process will commence.
You can then install whatever messaging app you want to move to. Check that your contacts are there so you can keep the communication flowing.
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