How to export a WhatsApp group chat on iPhone and Android

To export a WhatsApp group chat, open the group, tap the group name (iPhone) or the ⋮ menu and then More (Android), choose Export chat, and decide whether to include media. WhatsApp then creates a file of the conversation that you can save to your phone, a computer or cloud storage.

That takes about a minute. Doing it well takes a little more thought, especially if the group holds client work or years of team decisions. Below are the exact steps for both phones, what the export contains and leaves out, the limits to know about, and where to keep the file once you have it.

Before you export

• Use a phone that is in the group. You can only export the chats your own WhatsApp holds. If you joined the group late, your copy usually starts from when you joined.
• Check the history on that phone is complete. If someone switched phones without restoring a backup, their copy of the chat may be missing older messages. Export from the member with the longest, most complete history.
• Decide on media. Photos, videos, voice notes and documents make the file much larger, and WhatsApp exports fewer messages when media is included. More on that below.
• Have room and a connection. A group with years of photos can produce a large file. Use Wi-Fi and make sure the phone has free storage.

How to export a WhatsApp group chat on iPhone

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the group.
2. Tap the group name at the top of the chat to open the group info screen.
3. Scroll down and tap Export chat.
4. Choose Attach Media to include photos, videos, voice notes and documents, or Without Media for the text alone.
5. Wait while WhatsApp prepares the file. On iPhone it is always a ZIP file.
6. In the share sheet, choose Save to Files to keep it on the phone or in iCloud Drive, or AirDrop it to a Mac.

How to export a WhatsApp group chat on Android

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the group.
2. Tap the ⋮ menu (More options) in the top-right corner.
3. Tap More, then Export chat.
4. Choose Include media or Without media.
5. Pick where the file goes: Google Drive, an email app or another app on the phone.
6. Check the file arrived and opens before you move on to the next group.

WhatsApp sometimes moves menu items between versions. If something doesn't match what you see, its own help page on exporting chat history has the current steps.

Export a WhatsApp chat with media or without

Exporting with media gives you the fullest record: the messages plus the photos, videos, voice notes and documents shared in the group. The trade-off is reach. An export holds at most the newest 10,000 messages when you include media, and the newest 40,000 without it.

For a busy group that has run for years, the two options give you different things. With media gets you the recent files; without media goes further back in text. If the older history matters, export the group both ways and keep both files.

Two kinds of message never come out at all: disappearing messages and view-once photos and videos. If a group has used disappearing messages, the export will have gaps, and nothing can fill them.

What the export contains and what it leaves out

Open the file and you will find a plain text record of the conversation, one message after another, each with a date, a time, the sender and the text. On iPhone the ZIP holds a file called _chat.txt, plus the media if you attached it. On Android you get a .txt file, and with media, the media files either zipped together with it or sent as separate files beside it, depending on where you sent the export.

A few details are worth knowing before you rely on it:

• Senders appear by the name saved in the exporting phone's contacts. People who aren't saved usually show as a phone number.
• Dates and times are written in the exporting phone's local time and date format, with no time zone attached.
• Deleted messages appear as a line saying the message was deleted, and edited messages are marked as edited.
• Polls usually come through as plain text, with the question, the options and the vote counts.
• Reactions are not included, and replies lose their link to the message they answered.
• System lines, such as people joining or leaving, are mixed in with the messages.

In short, an export is a faithful, readable record of what was said, not a working copy of the group. You can read it, search it and keep it, but you can't load it back into WhatsApp.

Where to save the export

A group export can contain phone numbers, client details, prices and private files. Treat it like any other business record:

• Save it to storage the business controls, not a personal email account or a personal cloud drive.
• Name it clearly, with the group name and the export date, for example sales-team-2026-10-12.zip.
• Keep the original file unchanged. Editing the text file can break tools that read it later.
• Limit who can open it to the people who need the history.
• Follow your own privacy obligations. Let the group know you are keeping a record, and keep it no longer than you need to.

Exporting many groups for a business

WhatsApp exports one chat at a time; there is no option to export every group at once. A business that runs a group per client, site or project needs a short plan:

1. List every group worth keeping and note who is a member of each.
2. Assign each group to one person, ideally the member with the most complete history.
3. Agree whether to include media, and make the same choice for every group.
4. Export all the groups on the same day, so every file ends at the same point.
5. Collect the files in one shared, access-controlled folder and check that each one opens.

Keep the conversations where your team can use them

A folder of ZIP files preserves the history, but nobody searches it, and the next person to manage a client won't know it exists. The longer-term answer is to bring the conversations into a shared workspace the business owns.

SphereOne imports WhatsApp group exports directly. Each exported group becomes a group in SphereOne with its messages, photos, videos, voice notes and documents, and you can add many groups at once. People are matched to existing accounts by phone number or name, nothing is written until an admin confirms the preview, and any import can be undone. If Android gave you the media as separate files beside the .txt, put them all in one ZIP before uploading.

Imports are available to workspace admins on Starter, Business and Enterprise, and during the free trial you can upload an export and see the full preview. From there, new client conversations can happen in client rooms that stay with the business. Why that matters is covered in keeping client relationships when employees leave, and if WhatsApp is only one of several tools you are leaving, see how to move team chat history.