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How to export a WhatsApp chat on iPhone and Android

Updated November 8, 2026

WhatsApp’s Export chat feature saves a conversation as a plain text file, with or without photos and other media. It works one chat at a time, on iPhone and Android, and the file it makes is exactly what our tool reads.

On iPhone

1. Open the chat. Open WhatsApp and open the one-to-one or group chat you need.
2. Open the chat info. Tap the contact’s name or the group name at the top of the chat.
3. Export chat. Scroll down and tap Export chat.
4. Choose media. Choose Without media for the text only (smallest), or With all media / With selected media to include photos and files.
5. Save the file. Choose Save to Files (or Mail, Notes or another app). WhatsApp creates a ZIP file named like WhatsApp Chat - Name.zip that contains _chat.txt.

On Android

1. Open the chat. Open WhatsApp and open the one-to-one or group chat you need.
2. Open the menu. Tap More options (the three dots) › More › Export chat.
3. Choose media. Choose Without media or Include media. With media, WhatsApp attaches the most recent media files alongside the text.
4. Send it to yourself. Pick where to send it, for example Gmail, Google Drive or Quick Share. You get WhatsApp Chat with Name.txt, and with media either separate files or a .zip, depending on where you sent it.

Menu names come from WhatsApp’s help center (How to export your chat history) and can change between app versions. WhatsApp also notes that view-once messages are not exported and that an export cannot be imported back into WhatsApp.

With or without media?

For an exhibit of what was written, Without media is usually enough: it is small, quick and contains every message’s date, time, sender and text, with a placeholder where a photo was sent. Choose media when the pictures themselves matter. With a .zip that includes media, the PDF lists each attachment by name and says whether the file is in the archive. WhatsApp includes only recent media, so older attachments may be named in the chat but missing from the archive; the source log counts them.

What the export file looks like

Each message starts on a new line with the date, time and the sender’s name as saved on the exporting phone:

iPhone:   [3/5/24, 9:15:42 PM] Alex Rivera: Running late, sorry
Android:  3/5/24, 9:15 PM - Alex Rivera: Running late, sorry

Messages with several lines continue on the following lines. Notices such as “Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted” or “Alex added Sam” appear without a sender (Android) or under the chat name (iPhone); the tool labels them as WhatsApp notices, and you can leave them out.

Dates: day/month or month/day?

The date format follows the phone’s region, so 04/05/24 can mean April 5 or 4 May. The tool looks at every date in the file: a number above 12 settles it, and if every date is ambiguous it picks the reading that keeps the messages in order. It shows which order it used and why, and you can override it.

Time zones

WhatsApp writes the phone’s local clock time and no time zone. The PDF shows times exactly as written in the export and says so on the cover and in the source log. If the phone changed time zones during the conversation, note that separately.

Good habits

• Export from the phone that has the full history, and keep the original .txt or .zip unchanged.
• Don’t open and re-save the export in a text editor; that can change its contents and its SHA-256 hash.
• You can add several exports at once (for example a WhatsApp chat and an Android text backup) and combine them into one exhibit, as separate sections or one timeline.