Do you know how old your WhatsApp account is? Finding out exactly is difficult, but with this trick you can go a long way.
How old is your WhatsApp account?
It is not difficult, but you do need a bit of patience. Moreover, the process is somewhat cumbersome. In this article, we will therefore show you how to find out how old your WhatsApp account is (approximately).
It starts by requesting your account information. Ironically, this report doesn’t tell you exactly when your WhatsApp profile was created, but it does tell you when you accepted the terms of service. So you can still make a fairly accurate guess.
Here’s how to request WhatsApp account information:
- Open WhatsApp, tap the three dots at the top right and choose ‘Settings’. Then go to ‘Account’;
- Tap ‘Request Account Info’;
- Confirm your choice.
Check? WhatsApp will now start creating the report. This compilation can take up to three days. As soon as the report is ready, you will be notified by means of a notification.
When this is the case, you can export the report via the same menu (‘Account info’) and copy it to Google Drive, for example, or send it via Gmail. In our opinion, it is best to open these files, which are supplied in a zip file, on a computer. After all, this works most clearly.
Dive into the zip file
Did you download the zip file? Unzip it and open the folder ‘whatsapp_account_information’, or the Dutch version of it. Then open the html document ‘index’. This file should open – if it is correct – in the browser (such as Chrome or Firefox) and can best be seen as the homepage of your WhatsApp account information.
For example, under the ‘User Information’ heading you can see when you last changed your profile picture, and ‘Contacts’ shows a list of all the phone numbers you’ve ever texted with.
However, in the context of our objective, the link ‘Terms of Service’ is particularly relevant, which can be found under the heading ‘WhatsApp settings’. Every few years, WhatsApp updates its terms of service and on this page you can see exactly when you have accepted which version.
In my case, I accepted the 2016 terms on August 26th of that year. This doesn’t necessarily mean I created the account on that day, but it probably doesn’t matter all that much. I applied for my new phone number on August 23rd, and taking into account a few days of shipping time for the SIM card, August 26th is a pretty accurate estimate.
More about WhatsApp
We share joy and sorrow via WhatsApp, so it is important that the app handles our data well. We therefore explain how to get more privacy on WhatsApp. Don’t forget to properly secure your favorite chat app.
You are reading an article that previously appeared on our website. We have updated the information and republished the article.
Source: www.androidplanet.nl
