Before you start: with or without media
WhatsApp asks one question before every export: should the photos and other files come along?
Include media (Android) or Attach Media (iPhone) adds the photos, videos, voice notes, stickers and documents that are still on your phone. The export is bigger and can take a while. A file that is no longer on your phone can’t be included, and the chat text still mentions it by name.
Without media gives just the text. Photos and other files then appear as a line such as <Media omitted>, and chatinprint shows them as named cards marked “not included in export”, so nothing looks silently removed.
WhatsApp limits how much one export holds: reported: 10,000 recent messages with media and reported: 40,000 without, according to several sources. WhatsApp’s own help page for exporting a chat does not state a limit, so treat these numbers as unconfirmed. If your chat is longer, the export starts from the most recent part.
If you want the photos in your PDF, choose the media option. If you only need the words, or the chat is very long, the text-only export is smaller and, by the reported limits, holds more messages.
Export a chat on Android
- Open WhatsApp and open the chat or group.
Tap ⋮ (More options) at the top.
Tap More, then Export chat.
Choose Include media or Without media.
Android opens its share menu. Pick an option that saves the file to your phone’s storage (the name depends on your phone). Depending on the option, you’ll get one ZIP file or separate files.
- Open chatinprint and choose the ZIP, or the .txt together with its media files.
Sharing the export into a cloud service or an email uploads it there. To keep it on your phone, choose a save-to-device option. chatinprint itself never uploads anything: it reads the file in your browser.
Export a chat on iPhone
- Open the chat and tap the contact or group name at the top.
Scroll down and tap Export Chat.
Choose Attach Media or Without Media.
In the share sheet, tap Save to Files and pick a folder.
You get a ZIP file. Inside are the chat as one text file (its name, reported:
_chat.txt) and the media files.- Open chatinprint in Safari and choose that ZIP.
You don’t need to unzip anything. chatinprint opens the ZIP itself, finds the chat file and matches each photo, video and document to the message that sent it.
Group chats
The steps are the same: open the group, then its menu (Android) or its info screen (iPhone). The export contains the messages your phone has, from every participant, under the names your phone shows for them. chatinprint lists every participant it finds and asks which one is you, so your own messages sit on your side of the page.
System lines such as someone joining or leaving the group are part of the export too. chatinprint keeps them in their place in the conversation, styled so they don’t read as messages.
What’s inside an export
A text file where every message starts with a date and time, then the sender:
31/12/2025, 22:15 - Name: text
[31/12/2025, 22:15:07] Name: text
The first line is the Android shape, with a dash before the sender. The second is the iPhone shape, with the date in brackets and seconds on the time. A message that runs over several lines continues on the next lines without a date.
Media files keep WhatsApp’s names, like IMG-20240101-WA0001.jpg on Android or 00000042-PHOTO-2020-06-07-15-13-20.jpg on iPhone. The chat text refers to each file by that name, which is how chatinprint puts every photo back next to its message.
Times are your phone’s local clock; the export records no time zone. Dates follow your phone’s language settings, and chatinprint reads them in the 12 formats listed on the tool page, including Arabic and other non-Latin digits and local words for AM and PM. If a date could be read two ways, such as 03/04, chatinprint works out the order from the rest of the chat and asks you only when it can’t tell.
Deleted messages appear as “This message was deleted”, and edited ones may carry an edited note, exactly as WhatsApp wrote them. chatinprint never rewrites a message: what you see in the PDF is what the export says.
If Export chat is missing
When any participant turns on Advanced Chat Privacy, the others can’t export the chat. WhatsApp introduced the setting on April 23, 2025. No legitimate tool can get around it, because it exists to protect the people in the chat: ask the others whether they’re willing to change it, or read why Export chat can be missing or greyed out.
Turn the export into a PDF
- Open chatinprint and choose the export: the ZIP, or the .txt with its media files.
- Pick which participant you are, so your messages appear on your side of the page.
Check the preview and the options: the layout (Chat or Transcript), the date range and the paper size.
- Tap Create PDF, then choose Save as PDF in your browser’s print dialog.
Nothing is uploaded; you can even switch on airplane mode first. The file is read on your device, and the PDF is made by your browser’s own print engine.
Free · Unlimited · Your chat never leaves your device
Keep the original export
Don’t open the text file in an editor and save it again, and don’t rename or re-zip the media: any change, even an invisible one, gives the file a different fingerprint. Copy it somewhere safe as it is.
The SHA-256 values let anyone check that files were not changed after hashing. They do not prove who sent a message.
For what a PDF of a chat can and can’t show, read using a WhatsApp conversation as evidence.