How to keep your messages when switching Android phones

Moving to a new phone is the moment people discover which of their data was actually portable. Messages are among the most-lost, usually because of a small assumption that turns out to be wrong.

Here is what happens to each kind, and the two steps worth taking first.

SMS and MMS

Text messages live in Android's system message storage, which is included in Google's device backup. When you set up a new phone and restore from backup, your SMS history comes with it.

Two conditions have to hold, and both are easy to miss:

• Backup must be enabled. Settings → Google → Backup. Check the last backup date rather than the toggle; a switch that is on but has not run in six weeks is not a backup.
• Restore happens during initial setup. Android offers it while configuring a new device. Skip that step and there is no straightforward way to trigger it later without a factory reset.

If you use a manufacturer's own transfer tool such as Samsung Smart Switch or Xiaomi Mi Mover, SMS is typically included there too, often more reliably than the Google path.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp does not use the system backup. It maintains its own, to Google Drive, and you have to trigger it deliberately: WhatsApp → Settings → Chats → Chat backup → Back up now.

Then, on the new phone, restore when WhatsApp prompts during setup. Miss that prompt and the only route back is uninstalling and reinstalling, which is unpleasant but works.

Note that WhatsApp's Drive backup has historically not been end-to-end encrypted by default, so it is worth turning on if you have not, under Chat backup → End-to-end encrypted backup.

Telegram, Discord and Slack

Nothing to do. All three store your history on their servers, so it downloads again when you log in on the new device. This is the flip side of the trade-off in our encryption piece: server-side history is less private and considerably more convenient.

One difference worth knowing: for Discord and Slack, Textly reads notifications rather than holding an account, so it never had that history to begin with. On the new phone it simply starts listening again from that moment. Telegram, being a real connection, brings its history back with it.

Textly specifically

Textly holds no account, so there is nothing of ours to migrate. On the new phone:

1. Install Textly and set it as your default SMS app. Your restored SMS history appears immediately.
2. Reconnect each channel. Telegram asks for your number and a code; WhatsApp, Discord and Slack just need notification access granted again.
3. Extracted items and search indexes rebuild locally from your messages. No import step, no waiting for a server.

Nothing carries over from us because we never had anything. That is the point of the architecture, and this is one of the moments it shows.

What is genuinely lost

Being honest about the gaps:

• Message-specific state like pinned threads or custom notification settings usually does not survive a device change.
• MMS attachments are sometimes dropped by Google's backup even when the message text survives. If specific photos matter, save them to your gallery first.
• Anything from an app you are leaving behind. If you are switching messaging apps as well as phones, do that on the old device first, while both are working.

The five-minute version

1. Verify your Google backup ran recently
2. Trigger a manual WhatsApp backup
3. Save any MMS photos that matter to your gallery
4. Set up the new phone and restore during initial setup
5. Check a year-old conversation before wiping the old phone