WhatsApp is undoubtedly one of the most important apps that we have on our phones, as it allows us to keep in contact with the rest of the world. We use WhatsApp to communicate with our family, to conduct business, and much more. However, when you get a new phone, WhatsApp does not automatically sync the contacts that you had on your old phone. This is especially true if you’re changing from Android to iOS or vice versa. While this is certainly inconvenient and sometimes even downright frustrating, there’s no need to worry. In this article, I’ll discuss everything you need to do to import contacts to WhatsApp.
What Does Importing Contacts Mean?
When it comes to importing your contacts to WhatsApp, this means taking your contacts from a source that is external to the app, such as from your phone’s internal storage, address book, from the Cloud, or even from another device, and adding them to your WhatsApp in a way that the software can understand so that they can be displayed and used by the app.
4 Ways To Import Contacts To WhatsApp
There are 4 broad methods that we can use to import contacts from an external source to WhatsApp. We can do so manually, from Excel or by using a third-party app, like iTransor or MobileTrans.
Manually
You can import contacts to WhatsApp using the app’s own features. With these methods, you don’t need to do anything special – you just have to click a few buttons and you’ll have your contacts imported.
By Importing From Internal Storage Via WhatsApp
This is one of the simplest methods to import contacts to WhatsApp, and it’s available on both Android or iOS. However, you can only add one contact at a time, so this method can be a bit time-consuming. I recommend only doing it if you only need to import a few contacts to WhatsApp. The steps for this simple process are outlined below:
By Syncing
Syncing is another way to import contacts to your phone. This feature allows you to sync the contacts you have on your phone’s internal storage to the app itself, so you don’t need to add them one by one as you do in the previous way. This makes syncing your contacts easy and convenient. The only real concern some people have about this method is privacy. For the sync to work, you need to allow the app permission to access your contact list. If this makes you uncomfortable, then the previous method of adding contacts one by one is best for you. This feature can be automatically turned on whenever you install WhatsApp on an Android device, but there might be some instances where this is not the case, and you need to turn it on manually. If this is your situation, follow the steps below to grant permission to WhatsApp on your Android device to import contacts. For the most part, the previous steps should be enough to import contacts from your internal storage. However, if your contacts still won’t show, you may need to perform a few more steps. On the iPhone, the steps are as simple as clicking two buttons.
From Excel
You can also import contacts to Whatsapp from Excel. This is because Excel can create a file format called CSV, which can be uploaded to Google Drive and correctly read by WhatsApp. Excel is a spreadsheet program that is a part of Microsoft Office Suite. It can store, organize, and manipulate data, making it a crucial tool to have for anything that involves numbers. Values entered into the spreadsheet, such as contact details, can be converted by Excel into a CSV file, which you’ll be using to import data to WhatsApp. You can do this by first exporting your contacts from a CSV Excel file to your Google Drive Account. The contacts can then be synced to your Google Contacts, which will then automatically sync to WhatsApp, as long as you’re logged into the same Google account on the device where you have your WhatsApp installed. This method is ideal if you have a digital copy of your contacts in the form of an Excel file, which can sometimes be the case if you are backing up your Contacts. You can even export your existing WhatsApp contacts to Excel or CSV format. If you want to learn how to import contacts to WhatsApp from Excel, follow the steps below. To sync with WhatsApp, you need to enable contacts to sync with your Google Account. Here are the steps to do so.
Using iTransor
iTransor is a WhatsApp data solution that is designed to make your WhatsApp data operations much easier. It makes transferring WhatsApp data from one phone to another a breeze – even if you’re transferring from Android to iPhone and vice-versa.
Of course, one of the things that it does very well is importing contacts to WhatsApp, but you can also do things like back up your WhatsApp data, restore your WhatsApp backup, and even export your data as a CSV, XLS, or even HTML. With this, you don’t need to worry about paying additional money to store your backup on the Cloud. iTransor has a trial version that lets you back up your WhatsApp data and even view it, but it doesn’t allow you to restore the entire backup to your phone. In order to access that feature, you need to get a premium subscription. The one-month plan costs $29.95, and the 1-year plan costs a mere $39.95, both of which are good for up to 5 devices.
Assuming that you have already subscribed to and downloaded the app, follow the steps below to import contacts through iTransor. Please note that in order for this method to work, you must already have an existing WhatsApp backup file. Make sure that the backup is stored in your computer or that it can be accessed during the process. Your contacts should now be updated to your WhatsApp. Click Done. For Android users, you will be prompted to enable Developer Mode, turn on USB debugging, and allow the app access to your phone’s information. If you’ve done everything beforehand, then you shouldn’t see these prompts.
Using MobileTrans
MobileTrans is another WhatsApp data management solution that can help you manage your data more effectively and conveniently.
Just like iTransor, it’s also data transfer software. However, unlike iTransor, which can only deal with WhatsApp data transfer, backup, and restore, MobileTrans can deal with all types of data.
Get MobileTrans now!
It supports 17 kinds of data, which includes media files, notes, messages, music, and of course, contacts. You can also use MobileTrans to back up your phone and WhatsApp data to your Windows PC or Mac. More than that, the app even lets you back up and restore data from your other instant messaging accounts, such as Viber, Line, Kik, and WeChat.
MobileTrans offers a free version that lets you backup your data, but it only lets you restore up to five contacts and no more. To avail of the useful features that MobileTrans offers, you need to pay a one-time fee of $39.95.
If you’re still unsure whether or not you should get the premium version yourself, don’t fret. I did a detailed review of MobileTrans right here that you can check out.
After subscribing to and downloading MobileTrans, follow the steps below to import contacts to WhatsApp.
Phone To Phone Transfer
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to import contacts from another mobile device, so have your two mobile devices ready. Get MobileTrans now!
Desktop To Phone Transfer
Alternatively, you can also import contacts from your own WhatsApp backup. However, this assumes that you already have an existing backup on your computer that can be restored. Get MobileTrans now!
That’s How You Import Contacts To WhatsApp
WhatsApp, like many other social media and messaging platforms, is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives. We use it to communicate with our loved ones, our co-workers, business associates, and friends. At times, we may even use it to send files and important documents. Because of this, we need to be able to manage our data as effectively as we can, and that involves keeping our WhatsApp contacts up to date. Although it might be somewhat annoying to find out that WhatsApp does not automatically sync contacts from your old phone into a new one, you don’t need to worry. Again, you can use 4 methods to do this: manually, from Excel, with iTransor, and finally with MobileTrans. If you’ve followed all the steps listed above, you should have your contacts all imported by now. And if you also need to move your contacts between phones, read our post about how to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android. Did you like this article? Let me know what you think in the comments below and don’t forget to share it if you think it could help someone you know. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail.
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