How to export a WhatsApp chat

Open the one-to-one chat, choose Export Chat, select Without Media, save the resulting file, then open it on your computer. Story of Us reads the export in your browser and turns it into a private illustrated keepsake. If Advanced Chat Privacy is enabled for that chat, WhatsApp may disable export until it is turned off.

What you need

Just your phone — the whole export happens there, and a computer is only needed afterward to open the file in a browser. Find the one-to-one conversation with your partner; this doesn't work cleanly on a group chat.

Steps to export

1. Open the chat. Open WhatsApp and open the one-to-one conversation with your partner.
2. Start the export. On iPhone, tap their name at the top of the chat and scroll down to Export Chat. On Android, tap the menu icon in the top-right corner, then More, then Export chat.
3. Choose Without Media. Select Without Media. Photos and videos are not used by Story of Us, and leaving them out keeps the export small.
4. Move the file to your computer. Send the resulting file wherever is easiest — AirDrop or Mail to yourself on iPhone, Drive or Gmail on Android — until it is on the computer you will use next.
5. Upload the exported file. Open the WhatsApp import screen and drop in the .zip file you just saved.

The file you're looking for

WhatsApp produces a single .zip file named something like WhatsApp Chat with <Name>.zip. With Without Media selected it's usually well under a few megabytes even for years of history, and it doesn't need unzipping first — the import screen reads the zip directly.

Common problems

• Export Chat is missing or grayed out. If Advanced Chat Privacy is turned on for that specific chat, WhatsApp disables exporting it. Turn Advanced Chat Privacy off for that chat if you want to export it — note this also changes how disappearing messages and media forwarding work for that conversation.
• The zip is much larger than expected. You likely exported with media included — re-export and choose Without Media.
• Not sure which chat you exported. Check the file name before uploading; it includes the contact name WhatsApp exported.
• Some very old messages seem missing. WhatsApp's own export has practical limits on very long histories — whatever the export includes is what the keepsake is built from.

Privacy, plainly

The export itself never leaves your device — it's read right there in your browser, the same way a photo opens on your computer. To write the handful of captions that need real words (your busiest year, your first exchange, the phrase you didn't know you repeated), we send a much smaller slice to our server: your most-used words and phrases, counts and rhythms (who texts more, your streaks, your busiest hour), and a very small handful of sample messages — your first few texts and your most recent. Not the export file, not your full conversation. Read exactly what we send →

What you get

A short, private keepsake built only from your own history — pet names and inside jokes it noticed on its own, your year-by-year rhythm, your busiest hour, the words you reach for without thinking. You read it on your screen, then you can download it as a PDF to keep or print yourself, no subscription and nothing shipped. It's ready in about a minute.

Make our WhatsApp keepsake $5 · one time · stays on your laptop

Want the fuller picture first? See the WhatsApp keepsake page →