How to Export a WhatsApp Chat on Android

Export the chat, step by step

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the conversation you want to save.
2. Tap the three-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner.
3. Choose More, then Export chat.
4. WhatsApp asks whether to include media. Pick Include media for photos, videos and voice notes, or Without media for a lightweight text-only file.
5. The Android share sheet opens. Send the file wherever you like — Gmail to your own address, Google Drive, Files, or another app.

With media you get a .zip archive; without media, a single .txt file. The export only exists once you pick a destination in the share sheet — if you back out or dismiss it without choosing anything, WhatsApp discards the file and you have to run Export chat again.

.zip or .txt — which one do you actually need?

WhatsApp doesn't ask you this directly, but "include media" is really a choice between two file types:

If you're not sure, default to without media first — it's fast, small and covers roughly 40,000 messages — then export again with media only if you actually need the pictures.

Include media or not?

Without media is fast and small — even years of chat usually stay under a few megabytes — but images show up only as a placeholder line such as <Media omitted> (the exact wording depends on WhatsApp's display language — see the table below).

Include media gives you the full picture, but WhatsApp caps the export at roughly the 10,000 most recent messages when media is attached (about 40,000 without). For long or busy chats the file can grow to hundreds of megabytes, so use Wi-Fi if you plan to email it.

Want everything and the pictures? Export twice — once without media for the full text history, once with media for the recent, richer stretch.

Exporting a group chat

Group chats use the same Export chat button, with a few differences worth knowing before you open the file:

• Any member can export — you don't need to be a group admin.
• Many senders. Every line is prefixed with a name, so a busy group produces a dense transcript. A viewer that gives each sender their own color makes this much easier to follow.
• System messages appear too — lines like You added Priya, Sam left, or a changed group subject have no sender and are a normal part of the export.
• Names depend on your phone, not theirs. Members saved in your contacts show under the name you gave them; unsaved members show as a phone number, sometimes with the name they set on their own profile. These names are fixed at export time.
• You'll hit the 10,000-message media cap sooner than in a quiet one-to-one chat, simply because there's more traffic.

The .txt header line, decoded by region

Every line in the export starts with a timestamp and sender in a format that depends on your phone's region and language — this is exactly what a good parser has to handle, and why a naive script or spreadsheet import often breaks:

The "media omitted" placeholder is translated too. Depending on WhatsApp's display language you might see any of these instead of the English version:

Wording can shift slightly between WhatsApp versions. ChatViewer's parser recognizes date orders, 12- and 24-hour clocks, and the common placeholder translations automatically, so you don't have to know which one your export uses.

Export chat button missing?

• Look under "More". On Android, Export chat is not on the top level of the menu — it sits inside More, below options like Clear chat.
• Business chats may block it. Some business accounts and managed devices disable exporting.
• Update the app. Very old builds placed the option differently; current versions all use the three-dot menu.

How to read the exported file

The export is built for storage, not reading — the .txt is a dense column of timestamps and the zip's media files sit loose with cryptic names. To read it like a normal conversation, open it in ChatViewer: drop in the .zip or .txt and you get the familiar bubble view with photos and voice notes inline, full-text search and statistics. It all runs in your browser — the file is never uploaded to any server. When you're ready to keep a copy, Export PDF gives you a free version (first 500 messages, small watermark), an Unlimited PDF for $9 (every message, embedded photos, no watermark), or a Court-ready PDF for $19 (Bates stamps, SHA-256 hashes and a certificate template) — see our court evidence guide for that last one.