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Export guide

How to export WhatsApp chats, and what your lawyer can see

Need a copy of a WhatsApp chat for your lawyer? How to export it on iPhone or Android, what the file holds and leaves out, and what your lawyer gets.

Steps checked against WhatsApp’s help on

Export a chat from WhatsApp

On an iPhone

  1. On your iPhone, open the chat in WhatsApp, with one person or a group.

  2. Tap the contact’s name or the group name, then Export chat.

  3. If the chat has media, choose With all media, With selected media… or Without media.

  4. Choose where to send it, such as Save to Files, Message or Notes.

WhatsApp says Your chat history will be exported as a ZIP file. Message Review reads the ZIP as it is, so there is no need to open it. For Message Review, Without media is all you need.

On an Android phone

  1. On your Android phone, open the chat in WhatsApp, with one person or a group.

  2. Tap the three dots, then More, then Export chat.

  3. Tap Without media or Include media.

  4. Choose where to send it, such as Gmail, Quick Share or Chat.

You get the chat as a .txt file. With Include media, WhatsApp says the most recent media sent will be added as attachments to be sent from your sharesheet.

The same chat from an iPhone and from an Android phone

Both of our sample files hold the chat as text, each message starting on a new line with a date, a time and a name. Here is the same message from each, and how differently the two phones wrote that line.

A ZIP with the chat inside

From an iPhone

In our sample, each message starts with the date and time in square brackets, to the second, then the name.

Sample
Sample iPhone exportZIP
  1. [3/17/26, 7:10:05 AM] Paige Harper: Lincoln Park, the field behind the pool.
  2. I will put his cleats in his backpack.
The third message of our sample iPhone export: the stamp in square brackets, to the second. Sample matter; the people are made up.

A .txt file

From an Android phone

In our sample, each message starts with the date and time, then a dash, then the name.

Sample
Sample Android exportText file
  1. 3/17/26, 7:10 AM - Paige Harper: Lincoln Park, the field behind the pool.
  2. I will put his cleats in his backpack.
The same message in our sample Android export: the stamp, then a dash. Sample matter; the people are made up.

Same chat, same words. Message Review reads either one. The desktop app reads WhatsApp’s .txt file, so from an iPhone, take it out of the ZIP first.

What the file becomes in CustodyComms

Drop either file on Message Review and it reads the chat in date order, then charts it week by week.

We made one made-up chat as both files, an iPhone ZIP and an Android .txt, and ran each through Message Review on this site. Both read to the same 8 messages, word for word, from March 16 to March 20.

Sample iPhone export
8 messages read
Sample Android export
8 messages read
Larger view: From a real run of Message Review on the sample iPhone export: all 8 messages in one list, oldest first, as it lists them for a short chat with no incidents. The sample Android export reads to the same list. Message Review shows the parents as Parent A and Parent B. Sample matter; the people are made up.
From a real run of Message Review on the sample iPhone export: all 8 messages in one list, oldest first, as it lists them for a short chat with no incidents. The sample Android export reads to the same list. Message Review shows the parents as Parent A and Parent B. Sample matter; the people are made up.

For lawyers, and for the parent sending it

What your lawyer can see

  • The file you send.

    Your lawyer can read the chat in the file you export and send them. WhatsApp says it can’t be re-imported because it’s a text file and not a backup file.

  • Each message, dated and named.

    In our samples above, each message starts with a date and time and a name, then the words.

  • What WhatsApp says stays out.

    Its iPhone help says View once messages will not be exported. Photos and other media come only if you chose to include them, and from an Android phone they are attachments of their own, to send along with the chat.

  • The account report is not your messages.

    WhatsApp says Account information reports don’t include your personal messages. For your messages, it points you to exporting the chat.

If you use CustodyComms, the desktop app reads WhatsApp’s .txt file, and you can share the matter with your lawyer from the app or export a PDF and send it yourself. Evidence Edition exports your messages as one Bates-numbered PDF.

See what an export holdsCustodyComms for law firms

Import into CustodyComms

In your browser, on this site

Message Review

To see the chat in date order, charted week by week, drop the file WhatsApp gave you, the iPhone ZIP or the Android .txt, on Message Review on this site. No account is needed to start.

Open Message Review

On your computer, Mac or Windows

The desktop app

  1. Open CustodyComms and click Import Messages in the left sidebar.
  2. Under Where are your messages from?, click WhatsApp.
  3. Click Choose File and pick the chat’s .txt file. From an iPhone, open the ZIP first and pick the .txt file inside it.
  4. Map the participants and complete the import.
Get the desktop appFree for one Matter, up to 350 messages.

If something is missing

  • No Export chat? Restricted chat may be on for that chat. WhatsApp says that while it is on, people in the chat Can’t export the chat. It is replacing a setting called Advanced chat privacy. WhatsApp’s help, linked below, explains it.

  • Need the photos too? Export again with media: With all media or With selected media… on iPhone. On Android, Include media adds what WhatsApp calls the most recent media sent.

Try it with our samples

Both files hold the made-up chat on this page, 8 messages, one as an iPhone export (a ZIP) and one as an Android export (a .txt file). Each starts with a line saying it is a sample, which a real export does not have. Download either, then drop it on Message Review.

Sample iPhone exportZIP, 0.6 KBSample Android exportText file, 0.8 KB

Sample matter; the people are made up.

Open Message Review

Cloud AI analysis, the free sample analysis on this site, and the chat assistants are available in the United States and its territories, Canada (except Quebec), Australia and New Zealand only. Work you do on your own computer in the desktop app (importing messages, building your timeline, reviewing incidents and exporting them) is not restricted by where you are, and neither is downloading the app or managing your subscription.