WhatsApp’s own help page documents three different export routes, one for iPhone, one for Android and one for WhatsApp Web. Each one ends with the conversation leaving the app as a file you share somewhere else, and all three state that the result cannot be loaded back into WhatsApp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a single WhatsApp help article about exporting a chat, and it changes depending on which device you tell it you are using. The iPhone steps, the Android steps and the WhatsApp Web steps are not the same steps, and the web route offers something neither phone route does. All three were read on 11 October 2026 and the wording below follows them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same help article is served in three versions, one per platform. The iPhone version offers three choices about media. The Android version offers two. The WhatsApp Web version offers none at all, and asks a different question instead. That difference matters, because a set of steps written for a phone will send somebody on a laptop looking for a menu that is not there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The iPhone page states two things about the result. The chat history is exported as a ZIP file, and View once messages are not exported. Of the three examples the page gives, Save to Files is the one that leaves the file with you rather than sending it straight into another app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Android page adds one caveat that the iPhone page does not. If you choose Include media, the most recent media sent is added as attachments to be sent from your sharesheet. It does not say how many messages count as the most recent, and it does not say that the export is a ZIP, which the iPhone and web versions both do say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the route worth knowing about. The page states that the chat history is exported as a ZIP file, that media is not included unlike exporting chats on a mobile device, and that View once and disappearing messages are not exported. Of the three documented routes it is the only one that lets you pick a period at the moment of export, which matters if the conversation is years long and only one year of it is the part you care about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three versions of the page are the same article id with a platform parameter on the end, which is why a link someone sends you can show steps for a device you are not holding. Check that the steps mention the menu you can actually see before following them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three versions of the page say the same thing about what you end up holding: the chat history cannot be re-imported, because it is a text file and not a backup file. That sentence is doing more work than it looks. It means the export is not a copy of your WhatsApp, it is a transcript, and a transcript is a different kind of object. It is readable in any text editor, it is searchable, and it is also the only form in which anything else can read the conversation at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which makes the media question on the two phone routes less important than it appears. If what you intend to do with the export is read the words, the attachments are weight. Portraitor is a worked example of that: its privacy policy states that photographs, videos and voice recordings are never opened and never transmitted, and that only the written messages are read on the device. So Without media and With all media arrive at the same reading, and the smaller file uploads faster. Which chat export files can be analysed<\/a> covers what each app hands you in more detail, and whether it is safe to upload your chat history<\/a> covers what happens to the file afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two of the three pages name omissions. The iPhone page says View once messages are not exported. The web page says View once and disappearing messages are not exported, and that media is not included at all on that route. The Android page names neither of those, so the honest statement is that the documentation is not consistent about what is missing rather than that Android keeps more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The export does not mark the gaps. A conversation that leaned on disappearing messages comes out thinner than it felt, and nothing in the file says so. If that describes your chat, know it before you read anything into the shape of the transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For comparison, Telegram’s desktop export writes a structured file and lets you choose the format, which is a different design with different gaps. How to export a Telegram chat<\/a> walks that one through. Group threads raise their own question, which is that everyone else’s messages come out in the file too, and what happens to everyone else in a group chat<\/a> is the page on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Portraitor reads an exported conversation and returns a reading of one person in it. Its home page<\/a> says the uploader accepts a .txt, .html, .json or .zip file, and that a WhatsApp export, from phone or desktop, gives you a .txt or a .zip, so either of the routes above produces a file it takes as it comes. There is no need to open the archive first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The home page sets out four steps: the conversation, who, when, and pay. Two of those are worth connecting to what you have just read. The who step asks which single person in the thread you want the portrait of, and says their messages are read while everyone else stays context. The when step offers a set period or a custom range, which means the WhatsApp Web date range is not your only chance to narrow a long conversation. If you exported everything from a phone, you can still choose the window at this end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On price, the home page states $10 for a single portrait with no account and no renewal, or $19 a month for ten portraits. The policy adds the part that decides it for most people: names, email addresses, telephone numbers, postal addresses and credentials are replaced with placeholders in the browser before anything is sent, and the list matching those placeholders back to real names never leaves your device. Analyse my WhatsApp chat with AI<\/a> is the page that describes what comes back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Messenger works nothing like any of these three. There is no export option inside a conversation at all, and Meta routes the request through Accounts Centre, with a four day window to collect the file. The documented steps are in how to export a Messenger chat from Accounts Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, and WhatsApp documents a separate route for it. On WhatsApp Web you open the chat, click the menu, choose Export chat, select All messages or Custom date range, and click Export. The page states that media is not included on that route, unlike exporting from a mobile device.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n Only if you ask for them, and only from a phone. The iPhone route offers With all media, With selected media or Without media, and the Android route offers Include media or Without media. The WhatsApp Web route does not include media at all, according to its own page.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n No. All three versions of WhatsApp’s export page say the chat history cannot be re-imported, because it is a text file and not a backup file. Moving a conversation to a new phone is a different operation with its own documentation.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n At export time, only on WhatsApp Web, which asks for All messages or a Custom date range. The two phone routes export the whole chat and leave any narrowing to whatever you open the file with afterwards.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n WhatsApp’s page does not publish a size or a message limit, so this guide will not state one. What it does say is that the history is a text file, and text is small. The media is what makes an export heavy, which is the practical argument for Without media if you only want the words.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\nWhat WhatsApp leaves out of the export on purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Bringing the export into Portraitor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Can you export a WhatsApp chat from a computer?<\/summary>\n
Does a WhatsApp export include photos and voice notes?<\/summary>\n
Can you put an exported chat back into WhatsApp?<\/summary>\n
Can you export only part of a WhatsApp conversation?<\/summary>\n
How large is a WhatsApp export?<\/summary>\n