How to export a WhatsApp chat (iPhone & Android)

1. 1Open WhatsApp and go to the chat you want to export.
2. 2Tap the contact or group name at the top of the chat to open its info screen.
3. 3Scroll to the bottom and tap Export Chat.
4. 4Choose Without Media (recommended) or Attach Media.
5. 5Pick a destination from the share sheet — Save to Files is the most reliable; Mail works for smaller chats.
6. 6You now have a .txt file (or a .zip that contains one). That file is what you upload.

1. 1Open WhatsApp and go to the chat you want to export.
2. 2Tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner.
3. 3Tap More, then Export chat.
4. 4Choose Without media (recommended) or Include media.
5. 5Pick where to send the file — Google Drive, Gmail, or any app that can receive a file.
6. 6Download the resulting .txt (or .zip) to your device or computer. That file is what you upload.

Generally, no — and it is better to know that before you go looking. WhatsApp Web (web.whatsapp.com) has no Export Chat option, and the current Windows and Mac desktop apps have dropped it too (a few older desktop builds still show it under the chat menu, so it is worth a quick check). The dependable path is your phone: export there, then send the file to your computer via the share sheet, a cloud drive, or email.

The export screen offers both, and the difference matters more than it looks:

• Without media gives you a plain .txt file covering roughly the last 40,000 messages. Photos, stickers, voice notes, and documents appear as placeholder lines. ReadBeneath recognizes those placeholders and counts each one as an attachment — so a sticker-heavy chat is still described honestly, it just cannot show you the sticker.
• With media (Attach Media / Include media) produces a .zip with the chat text plus the actual files, but covers only about the last 10,000 messages. ReadBeneath opens the archive, reads the conversation, and can use bundled images as additional cited context in your report.

Our default recommendation is without media: more history, a smaller and more private file, and the analysis loses very little — only real text messages count toward the sample-size thresholds either way.

Open the .txt and you will see one line per message, in one of two formats depending on your phone:

[6/12/26, 9:41:07 PM] Sam: are we still on for tonight?
[6/12/26, 9:44:12 PM] Riley: yes! leaving in 10
6/12/26, 9:41 PM - Sam: are we still on for tonight?
6/12/26, 9:44 PM - Riley: yes! leaving in 10

The bracketed style is typical of iPhone exports and the dash style of Android — ReadBeneath parses both, including seconds, AM/PM, and regional date orders. App-generated lines (the encryption notice, “You created this group”, missed-call entries) are filtered out automatically so they never pollute the analysis.

• A Google Drive or iCloud backup is not an export. Backups are encrypted blobs only WhatsApp itself can restore — no analysis tool can read them. Only the Export Chat flow produces a readable file.
• Very long chats get truncated. WhatsApp exports the most recent ~40,000 messages (without media). If your history is longer, the oldest messages simply are not in the file — that is a WhatsApp limit, not a bug.
• Email bounced or the attachment never arrived? The file was probably too large for the mail provider. Re-export and pick Save to Files (iPhone) or Google Drive (Android) instead.
• Exports are one-way. An exported .txt cannot be imported back into WhatsApp. It is a copy for reading and analysis; your original chat is untouched.