How to export a WhatsApp chat

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

1. 1Open the conversation you want to export.
2. 2Tap the three-dot menu in the top right, then More.
3. 3Tap Export chat.
4. 4Choose Include media if you want the photos, videos and voice notes.
5. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.