How to export a WhatsApp chat on iPhone and Android

Getting the file off the phone is the first half of turning a WhatsApp chat into a PDF. Two minutes, and the part people get wrong is the media, so it is spelled out for each platform, along with what actually ends up inside the file.

By Martin Ferret · Published September 18, 2026 · Last updated October 27, 2026

How to export a WhatsApp chat on iPhone

1Open the conversation you want to export.
2Tap the contact name or the group name at the top of the screen.
3Scroll to the bottom of that screen and tap Export Chat.
4Choose Attach Media if you want the photos, videos and voice notes.
5In the share sheet, choose Save to Files rather than a messaging app.

How to export a WhatsApp chat on Android

1Open the conversation you want to export.
2Tap the three-dot menu in the top right, then More.
3Tap Export chat.
4Choose Include media if you want the photos, videos and voice notes.
5Choose where to save the ZIP: Drive, Files, or an email to yourself.

Android splits very long conversations into several files. Each one is a complete, valid export of its own slice of the conversation.

Can you export from WhatsApp Desktop?

WhatsApp Web and the WhatsApp desktop application have no export function. There is no hidden menu and no keyboard shortcut. The export lives on the phone, and only on the phone.

So the sequence is always the same: export on the phone, then move the ZIP to a computer by AirDrop, a cable, a cloud folder, or an email to yourself. That is also where you want to be afterwards, because reviewing a few hundred pages on a phone screen is not a thing anyone does twice.

What does Attach Media change?

The choice WhatsApp offers at the end changes what you get far more than it sounds like it will.

What the media choice changes
With media	Photos, videos and voice notes are included as real files alongside the text. The archive is much larger, and WhatsApp includes fewer messages in it, because it caps the size of what it will build.
Without media	You get the text alone, and every attachment is replaced in the transcript by a line that says the file was omitted. The message is still there; the file it referred to is gone.

If you need both the whole conversation and the attachments, export twice: once without media for the complete text, once with media for the files.

What is inside the export file?

The export is a ZIP archive. Open it and you find one text file and, if you chose to include them, the attachments beside it.

This archive is the input ChatExhibits reads. The software is built for divorce and custody matters, where the exchanges in a chat have to be produced as a document rather than as screenshots, and this file is where that starts.

_chat.txt
IMG-20240315-WA0001.jpg
VID-20240315-WA0004.mp4
PTT-20240315-WA0009.opus

_chat.txt is the conversation: one line per message, with the timestamp and the sender.
IMG, VID and PTT prefixes mark photos, videos and voice notes. Each is referenced by name from the line it belongs to.
Voice notes are .opus files, which most media players will not open without help.

The exact shape of those lines, including the invisible characters that trip up most converters, is documented separately. To see what your own file contains without installing anything, open it in the export viewer.

When the export is for a custody matter, the guide How to use WhatsApp messages as evidence in a custody case covers what happens next: keeping it unaltered, authenticating it and presenting it.

Common questions

Does exporting a WhatsApp chat notify the other person?

No. Export Chat builds a file on your phone and sends nothing to the other participants. They only see the export if you share the file with them.

Does exporting a chat delete it from WhatsApp?

No. The export is a copy. The conversation stays in WhatsApp exactly as it was, and you can export it again later.

Can I export a group chat?

Yes, with the same steps, started from the group rather than a one-to-one conversation. The export contains every participant’s messages, each line carrying its sender.

Can I export only part of a conversation?

Not from WhatsApp, which exports the conversation as a whole and offers no date range. Narrowing it happens afterwards: ChatExhibits filters by period or participant at the Legal Exhibit tier, and the certificate records that it did.

Why are older messages missing from my export?

An export only contains what is on the phone. Messages deleted from it, or not restored after a phone change, are not there. With media attached WhatsApp also includes fewer messages, so exporting without media gives the longest text.