Turn your WhatsApp chat into a book.
To turn a WhatsApp chat into a book, you start with the same thing either way: the conversation itself, exported from your phone. Years of good-mornings, arguments, 2 a.m. you up? texts — everything you two have ever said to each other, set down as something you can hold. There are two routes from export to book: a printing service that binds and ships it, or an instant keepsake you make yourself and print at home.
Step 1: export the chat
Open the conversation, then export it without media — on iPhone, tap your partner's name at the top and scroll to Export Chat; on Android, use the ⋮ menu → More → Export chat. WhatsApp hands you the conversation as a text transcript: either a .txt file directly, or that same text wrapped in a .zip, depending on your phone and how you share it. Move it to your computer however's easiest — AirDrop or Mail on iPhone, Drive or Gmail on Android. Step-by-step WhatsApp export guide →
Route A: a printed chat book
Chat-book printing services — Zapptales is the best-known — take your exported file and turn it into a bound book they post to you. You export, send them the file, and wait: production and delivery take weeks rather than minutes, the price depends on page count, binding and shipping, and your full conversation passes through the printer's servers to be laid out — worth reading their privacy policy before you commit. What arrives is a genuine, professionally bound object: your words, reprinted page after page, on the shelf. If you want the gift-ready physical thing and don't mind the wait, this is the route.
Route B: an instant keepsake you print yourself
Story of Us starts from the same export and builds something different: not a reprint of the conversation, but a short love story written from the patterns inside it — your pet names, your rituals, the year you talked the most, the phrase you didn't know you repeated. Drop the file straight into your browser — the .txt, or the .zip WhatsApp sometimes wraps it in; either works, nothing to unzip first — and read the result together on screen in about a minute. Then download it as a PDF and print it yourself: a few nice pages tucked into a card, and you have your chat book — your story, on paper, today instead of in a few weeks.
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.
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 →
Which route should you pick?
Pick a printed chat book if you want a professionally bound, gift-ready object and don't mind waiting weeks or handing your full conversation to a printer. Pick the instant keepsake if you want it today, want the export to stay on your own device, or want the story in the messages — a telling of your relationship written from your own words, not just the messages reprinted. Plenty of couples do both: make the keepsake now, print the PDF, and you have a book either way.
Make our WhatsApp keepsake one-time · no subscription · stays on your laptop
Talk on Messenger instead? Make a Messenger keepsake →
The keepsake itself: WhatsApp chat keepsake →
Beyond WhatsApp? Turn any text messages into a book →
Printed-book route in detail: WhatsApp chat book options →
Just curious about the raw numbers? Count your texts free, right on this device →
Making it a gift? See the anniversary keepsake →
Questions
How do I turn my WhatsApp chat into a book?
First export the chat from WhatsApp without media — you get a .txt file, or a .zip containing it, depending on your phone. Then either send that file to a chat-book printing service for a bound book in a few weeks, or drop it into Story of Us in your browser for an instant keepsake you can print yourself as a PDF.
What file does WhatsApp give me when I export?
A text transcript of the conversation — either a .txt file directly, or that same text wrapped in a .zip. It varies by phone and share method, so don't worry if yours looks different from a friend's; both work and there's nothing to unzip first.
How much does a printed WhatsApp chat book cost?
It varies — printers charge by page count, binding and shipping, so a long conversation costs more than a short one. The instant keepsake route skips printing and shipping entirely: you print the PDF yourself, at home or a print shop, for whatever that costs you.
Is my exported chat uploaded anywhere?
Not with Story of Us — the export is read in your own browser, never uploaded, whether it's the .txt or the .zip. A printing service is different: they need your full file to lay out the book, so check their privacy policy first.
What's the difference between a chat book and a keepsake?
A chat book reprints your conversation as a physical book — the provider lays it out, prints and ships it. Story of Us instead writes a short love story from the patterns in your own words — pet names, rituals, busiest hours — ready in about a minute, which you then print yourself.