By Kavita Mistry 
Zoho’s Arattai Messenger is an Indian chat app that gives users a secure and personal way to stay connected with their friends, family members, and colleagues. What differentiates Arattai from every other chat app is that it is not only a chat app but also introduces fun and meaningful features that make it a smart choice when you need to select a messenger app.
However, WhatsApp has lots of active users all around. But ever since the Arattai Messenger was introduced, most of the users have started appreciating it for its intelligent features. Individuals are also slowly shifting to Arattai as it offers better control over privacy and makes file sharing, chatting, and communication easy and secure.
People have relied on WhatsApp for years to be connected and send important messages, files, and documents. But now, as more people switch to Arattai, no one wants to lose old memories and important chats. Everyone wants a way to bring their WhatsApp conversations and media with them while moving to a better and more secure messenger.
So, in this article, I’ll tell you how to transfer all your WhatsApp conversations to Arattai Messenger easily and securely. You’ll also find what to prepare before you start and how to fix small issues if anything goes wrong during the process.
What is Arattai Messenger?
Arattai Messenger is a made-in-India chat app developed by Zoho Corporation. The word Arattai itself means casual talk in Tamil, and the app itself lives up to its meaning. It offers all the basic features, such as sending text messages, voice notes, photos, and videos, just like other regular chat apps. But what makes Arattai stand out is that it’s not just another messaging app. Along with chatting, it also brings smart tools like using the app as a To-Do List, sharing files between devices, and you can use the app as your personal storage to store your files.
These features make it more useful for both personal and work conversations. And the best part is that it lets you import your WhatsApp chats, so you can bring along your old messages, shared memories, and important conversations or media, making it super easy to switch without losing anything that matters to you.
Things to Know Before Importing WhatsApp Chats to Arattai
Before you start importing your WhatsApp chats to Arattai Messenger, you need to meet these basic requirements. Having everything ready before starting helps you avoid problems later and makes the transfer smooth and fast. In this part, we’ll see what you’ll need and what can be imported.
What You’ll Need
1. Stable Internet Connection: Make sure your phone is connected to a stable Wi-Fi or mobile data; otherwise, the transfer may fail if the connection drops in between.
2. Updated WhatsApp and Arattai: Always use the latest version of WhatsApp and Arattai messenger.
- On Android, open Google Play Store, click Profile, choose Manage apps and device, switch to Manage, go to Updates available tab, and finally Update WhatsApp and Arattai.
- On iPhone, open App Store, click on Profile icon, scroll and find WhatsApp and Arattai in Available Updates section, and update them.
3. Enough Free Storage Space: You’ll need to free up space on your device for both exporting and importing chats if you don’t have enough space.
- On Android, open Settings, scroll, and click Storage to check available space.
- On iPhone, open Settings, go to General, and click iPhone Storage to see how much space is left.
4. Backup WhatsApp Chats: To avoid losing anything, back up your WhatsApp chats before importing them into Arattai.
- On Android, open WhatsApp, click three dots, and go to Settings. After that, click Chats, then Chat backup, and finally click the Back up button.
- On iPhone, open WhatsApp, switch to Settings, click Chats, then Chat Backup, and finally hit the Back up now button.
5. Both Apps on the Same Phone: Make sure that both WhatsApp and Arattai Messenger are installed on the same phone. The export goes directly from one app to the other.
6. Contacts Who Use Arattai: You can only import personal or group chats of people who already use Arattai. If you are trying to transfer chat of a contact who hasn’t joined Arattai yet, then their chat will not appear even after transfer.
What Can Be Imported
You can move most of your important WhatsApp data to Arattai Messenger, but not everything. Here’s what can be transferred.
1. Personal Chats: You can import your one-on-one chats, including all your messages, shared media, and files.
2. Group Chats: Group chats can also be imported, but you’ll need to create the same group on Arattai before starting the import. Only the chats of members who are already on Arattai will appear after the transfer.
3. Photos, Videos, and Voice Messages: All your shared photos, videos, and voice notes can be moved from WhatsApp to Arattai without losing quality.
4. Documents and Shared Files: You can transfer your shared documents, PDFs, and other important files.
How to Transfer Your WhatsApp Chats to Arattai Messenger Easily
By now, you know what you need to do before importing and what can be imported from a WhatsApp chat to Arattai Messenger. I’ve separately mentioned the steps on iPhone and Android.
On iPhone
- Open WhatsApp and go to the chat you want to export.
- Tap the contact or group name at the top.
- Scroll down and select Export Chat.
- Here, you will be prompted by two different options: choose Attach Media if you want to include photos and videos, and choose Without media if you only want to export text chats.
- From the sharing options, select Arattai.
- If you’ve already created a group with that person on Arattai and want to import your WhatsApp chats into the same group, choose that existing group. But if you simply want to create a new group with yourself and import all your WhatsApp chats with that specific person into that group, then click on Import to new group.
- Once you click on it, a pop-up will appear, tap Import.
- Wait for the import to complete, and all your chats with that person will be imported into a new group that only you can access.
On Android
- Open WhatsApp and go to the chat you want to export.
- Tap the three dots in the top-right corner.
- Choose More when the menu appears.
- After that, click Export chat.
- Next, choose Attach Media if you want to export photos and videos as well, and if you want only text to export, then choose Without media.
- Choose Arattai on the sharing pop-up screen.
- Next, scroll and find the person whose chat you want to import.
- After that, a confirmation pop-up appears; here, click on import.
- The app will import the chat automatically.
Pro Tips for a Smooth Transfer of WhatsApp Chats to Arattai Messenger
Arattai is a newly launched app, and like most new apps, it may have a few small bugs or glitches that users face while transferring chats from WhatsApp. So, to make your chat transfer smooth and error-free, here are a few useful tips that you should follow before starting.
- Arattai doesn’t support multiple imports at once yet, so transfer one chat at a time. Start with your most important conversations first and follow the same steps to move others.
- If your WhatsApp chats include many photos and videos, they’ll take up more space. So, before starting the transfer, ensure your phone has enough free storage; otherwise, the process might pause or fail midway.
- Using Wi-Fi will make the transfer faster and smoother, unlike mobile data, which can cause delays.
- Don’t close or minimise WhatsApp or Arattai when importing the chats. If you switch to another app, the process might stop midway.
- You can import chats only for contacts or groups that already exist on Arattai. If someone hasn’t joined yet, their chat won’t show up even after the transfer.
- Keep your WhatsApp backups saved until you’ve confirmed that all your chats and media start appearing in Arattai. This backup can be useful if something goes wrong.
Troubleshooting Issues While Transferring WhatsApp Chats to Arattai Messenger
Even if you follow all the steps and tips correctly, you might still face glitches or a failed chat transfer. Since Arattai is still new, minor bugs and errors are normal. That’s why I’ve listed some common problems users face while importing WhatsApp chats to Arattai Messenger, along with simple fixes you can try.
1. Chats Not Showing Up
This problem happens when the exported chat file is not shared correctly from WhatsApp or when the person or group you’re transferring doesn’t exist on Arattai. To fix it, re-export the chat from WhatsApp and make sure you share it directly with Arattai in .txt format. Also, confirm that the contact or group already exists on Arattai before importing. Restart the app and check again once the process finishes.
2. Import Button Not Working
Sometimes you press the import button and nothing happens. That usually means either the app hasn’t been updated or Arattai doesn’t have the right permission to use your phone’s files. The fix is, update both WhatsApp and Arattai to the latest version first, then check whether Arattai can access your phone’s storage. After that, restart your phone once and try again. If it’s still stuck, quickly check your internet connection before doing another import attempt.
If the screen freezes on Processing, it often means the chat file is too large or your phone doesn’t have enough free space to complete the transfer. A good way to solve this is to export the chat again without media like photos or videos, which reduces the file size and can be transferred easily. You can also clean up some space by deleting unused apps or big files. When that’s done, restart your phone and start the import again.
4. Media Not Transferred
If your photos, videos, or voice notes didn’t appear after import, the issue is usually with large media files or those not supported by Arattai. You should try exporting the chat again and selecting Include Media. If it still doesn’t work, stop sending large media through the import option and move them manually using your phone’s file manager.
Tried everything? Still not transferring, the issue might be from the App, like a temporary server problem. In such cases, the best option is to contact the Arattai support team directly through the app, visit their official website, or X (Twitter) to report your issue. You can also send them an email at support@arattai.in with all the exact issues that you are facing with screenshots.
Move Your WhatsApp Chats to Arattai Messenger
Moving your WhatsApp chats to Arattai Messenger is easy once you know the right steps. By following the points shared earlier, you can safely transfer all your important messages, files, and documents without losing anything. Arattai is still a new app, so facing small errors or delays is normal, but if you follow the steps and tips given above carefully, your transfer will complete smoothly.
FAQs
1. Is there a file size limit for importing a single chat in Arattai?
There isn’t any fixed number mentioned by Arattai, but from what users have noticed, very large chats, especially the ones with photos and long videos, can take forever to load or might stop midway. The safest thing to do is export the chat without media first and, if needed, move big files separately later. That way, the transfer doesn’t stop in between.
2. Can I move my WhatsApp backups from Google Drive or iCloud directly to Arattai?
You can’t bring that backup file straight into Arattai, since it’s encrypted for WhatsApp only. What you can do is restore that backup inside WhatsApp first, so all your old messages show up again there. Once they’re visible in the app, simply export those chats normally and import them into Arattai.
3. Does Arattai allow importing chats on desktops or just phones?
The whole import system is meant for phones right now, because it connects directly through the WhatsApp app. You can still open Arattai on your computer later to view the imported chats, but the actual export part has to be done from your phone.
4. Will the imported chat retain the original date and timestamp of the messages?
Yes, the dates don’t reset. When you import a chat into Arattai, the old messages appear with the same dates and times as they were on WhatsApp. So your conversation will look exactly like it used to, same order, same timeline, just in a new place.