How to Export a WhatsApp Chat (iPhone & Android)

8 July 2026 · 5 min read

Exporting a WhatsApp chat takes less than a minute once you know where the button is hiding. Here's exactly how to do it on iPhone and Android, what "Attach Media" actually gives you, and what to do with the file once you've got it.

Before you start

WhatsApp's export feature bundles a chat into a single file you can save, send to yourself, or open elsewhere. It works the same way whether the chat is with one person or a group, though group exports are usually larger because there are more messages and more photos flying around.

You'll end up with a .zip file. Inside it is a text file called _chat.txt containing every message in order, plus — if you chose to include it — the photos, videos and voice notes that were shared, sitting alongside it as separate files.

Exporting on iPhone

1. Open WhatsApp and go into the chat you want to export.
2. Tap the contact's name or the group name at the top of the screen.
3. Scroll down the contact/group info screen until you see Export Chat.
4. Choose either Attach Media or Without Media (more on the difference below).
5. Choose where to send it — Save to Files is the simplest option if you just want it sitting on your phone, but you can also AirDrop it, email it to yourself, or save it straight to a cloud drive.

The result is a .zip file, usually named after the chat, that lands wherever you told it to go.

Exporting on Android

1. Open WhatsApp and go into the chat you want to export.
2. Tap the three dots (⋮) in the top-right corner.
3. Tap More.
4. Tap Export chat.
5. Choose Include media or Without media.
6. Pick where to send it — save it to Drive, email it, or share it to a file manager app so it lands in local storage.

Same result: a .zip file containing the chat, ready to save or share.

Attach Media vs Without Media — what's the difference?

This choice matters more than it looks:

• Without Media gives you a small, fast _chat.txt file. Anywhere a photo, video or voice note was shared, you'll see the placeholder text <Media omitted> instead of the actual file. Good for a quick text record, but you lose the photos.
• Attach Media (or Include media on Android) bundles the actual images, videos and voice notes alongside the text file. This is what you want if the photos and voice messages are the whole point — birthday chats, holiday planning, a relationship's worth of memories.

If you're not sure which to pick, choose media. You can always ignore the media files later, but you can't get them back once you've exported without them.

A word on size limits

WhatsApp caps how much a single export can hold. Very long chats — especially group chats that have been running for years and contain thousands of photos — may get trimmed, meaning the export only covers the most recent portion of the conversation, or only includes a limited number of media files even when you've asked for media to be attached. If a chat feels suspiciously short once exported, this is usually why: WhatsApp has quietly left older messages or media out to keep the file a manageable size.

There's no way around this from within WhatsApp itself. If you need the full history and it's been trimmed, exporting media in smaller batches (for example, by deleting very old media locally after backing it up elsewhere) is about the only workaround.

Where does the file go?

On iPhone, if you chose Save to Files, look in the Files app — by default it'll be in "On My iPhone" or whichever folder you picked. On Android, it typically lands wherever your chosen app saves things: your Drive, your downloads folder, or a file manager location, depending what you shared it to.

Either way, you're looking for a .zip file. Don't worry about unzipping it manually — that's the next step, and there's an easier way than digging through a file manager.

What to do with it next

On its own, a folder of _chat.txt plus scattered image and .opus voice note files isn't very readable. The timestamps and sender names are all there, but it looks like plain code rather than a conversation.

The simplest next step is to drag the .zip straight into SaveMyChats, which turns it into a proper scrollable chat page — complete with inline photos, playable voice notes, and day dividers — or a clean, print-ready PDF. Everything happens in your browser, so nothing is uploaded anywhere; it's just a faster way of reading the export you already made.

Troubleshooting

• I can't find "Export Chat" at all. Make sure you've tapped the contact or group name at the very top of the chat screen (iPhone), or the three-dot menu followed by More (Android) — it's not on the main chat list, only inside an open conversation.
• The export seems to be missing early messages. This is almost always the size limit mentioned above. Very old or very large chats get trimmed automatically.
• Media files aren't in the zip even though I chose to include them. Check you didn't accidentally tap "Without Media" — it's easy to mis-tap on the small confirmation dialog. Also note that media WhatsApp itself never fully downloaded (for example, photos you never opened) sometimes can't be included.
• The zip won't open, or looks empty. Try exporting again and choosing a different destination (Save to Files rather than a messaging app, for instance) — some sharing targets compress or convert the file in ways that cause problems.
• Voice notes don't play from the file manager. That's expected — they're saved as .opus files, which many phones' default players don't recognise. A tool built to read WhatsApp exports, rather than your phone's generic media player, will handle them properly.

Ready to save yours? SaveMyChats turns a WhatsApp export into a beautiful web page or PDF — right in your browser, with nothing uploaded. Open SaveMyChats →