How to Export a WhatsApp Chat on Android and iPhone

1Before you start

• Export works from the WhatsApp phone app, one chat at a time. There is no built-in option to export every chat in one file.
• Update WhatsApp first; older versions may place the option elsewhere.
• Decide whether you need media. For reading or for AI import, without media is faster and much smaller.
• A WhatsApp backup (Google Drive or iCloud) is not the same as an export. Backups are for restoring WhatsApp on a phone and cannot be read as a chat file.

2Export a WhatsApp chat on Android

1. Open the chatOpen WhatsApp and tap the individual or group conversation you want to export.
2. Open the menuTap the three-dot menu (More options) in the top-right corner.
3. Tap More, then Export chatIn the menu, tap More, then Export chat.
4. Choose mediaChoose Without media for a text-only file, or Include media to attach recent photos, voice notes and videos.
5. Save or share the filePick where to send it: save it to Google Drive or your files, email it to yourself, or share it to a computer. You get a TXT file, or a ZIP when media is included.

3Export a WhatsApp chat on iPhone

1. Open the chatOpen WhatsApp and tap the conversation you want to export.
2. Open contact or group infoTap the contact’s or group’s name at the top of the screen.
3. Tap Export ChatScroll to the bottom of the info screen and tap Export Chat.
4. Choose mediaTap Without Media for text only, or Attach Media to include recent media.
5. Save or share the ZIPUse the share sheet to choose Save to Files, AirDrop it to a Mac, or email it to yourself. iPhone exports arrive as a ZIP that contains a file usually named _chat.txt.

4Limits and missing options

WhatsApp limits how many messages an export includes, so that files stay small enough to email. Its help pages have described the limit as about 40,000 recent messages without media and about 10,000 with media. For very long chats, the oldest messages may be cut off; exporting without media gives you the most history.

If you cannot find Export chat:

• Advanced chat privacy may be switched on for that chat. When a participant enables it, WhatsApp blocks exporting the chat.
• Your WhatsApp version may be out of date, or the option may be unavailable in some regions or on some business accounts.
• You may be in WhatsApp Web or the desktop app, which do not offer chat export; use the phone.

5What the exported file looks like

The export is a plain-text transcript. Each line starts with the date and time, then the sender’s name as saved in your phone, then the message. The date format follows your phone’s language and region, so a chat exported in Poland, Brazil or Japan looks different from one exported in the US.

• Media appears as a placeholder such as “media omitted” when exported without media, or as file names in the ZIP when included.
• System notices (encryption messages, people joining groups) appear as lines without a normal sender.
• Deleted and edited messages may appear with a short note instead of the original text.

6Moving the export to a Windows PC

The simplest routes are emailing the file to yourself, saving it to cloud storage you trust and downloading it on the PC, or connecting the phone by USB and copying it from the folder where you saved it. Keep ZIP files as they are; there is no need to unzip them before importing.

7Using your export with Memory Clone

Memory Clone imports WhatsApp TXT and ZIP exports from Android and iPhone, in many languages and date formats. It processes them on your PC, builds a local memory index and learns the writing style of each relationship. Read how WhatsApp chats become an AI chatbot for the next steps.