How to Email a WhatsApp Chat to Yourself

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated November 9, 2026

To email a WhatsApp chat, export it and pick your email app as the destination: on iPhone, tap the contact or group name, Export chat, then Mail or another mail app; on Android, tap More options, More, Export chat, then Gmail or another mail app. The export arrives as an attachment. Exports with media are often too big for email: Gmail, for example, caps attachments at 25 MB. For those, save the export to a cloud drive and send a link instead.

Steps on iPhone

1. Open the chat and tap the contact or group name at the top.
2. Tap Export chat.
3. Choose whether to include media. For email, without media is the safe choice; the result is small.
4. In the share sheet, choose Mail (or Gmail, Outlook or another mail app you have installed).
5. Enter your own address, add a subject such as the chat name and date, and send.

Steps on Android

1. Open the chat and tap More options (three dots).
2. Tap More, then Export chat.
3. Tap Without media or Include media.
4. Choose Gmail or another mail app. WhatsApp's help center lists Gmail among the examples.
5. Address the message to yourself and send it.

Full export walkthroughs: iPhone and Android.

When the export is too big for email

Email services limit attachment size. Gmail's help says you can send up to 25 MB in attachments, and that larger files are added as a Google Drive link instead. Other providers have their own limits, and the recipient's provider can also reject large messages. In tests published by WITNESS in 2018, Android exports with media above 25 MB carried only the most recent 25 MB of media, so a large export sent by email may also arrive incomplete. Options:

• Export without media. Text-only exports are small enough for almost any email service.
• Save to a cloud drive and share a link. Save the export to Google Drive, iCloud Drive or another drive, then share the file from the drive app and send the link by email.
• Mail Drop on Apple devices. Apple's Mail Drop can send large attachments through iCloud as a download link. Apple's page lists a limit of up to 5 GB and says the files are available for 30 days.
• Send a PDF instead. If the other person only needs to read the chat, make a PDF and email that (see below).

Opening the emailed chat on a computer

1. Download the attachment from the email. It is usually a .zip, or a .txt for a text-only Android export.
2. Do not unzip it. Open PrintChats in your browser and drag the file onto Choose your WhatsApp export.
3. Pick your name under I am, then read, search or filter by date.
4. Click Save as PDF if you want a printable copy. More in WhatsApp chat to PDF on a Mac or PC.

On Android, if the email arrived with a .txt and separate photo files instead of one .zip, download them all, put them together in one .zip, and open that so the photos show.

Email someone a readable PDF instead

Sending the raw export to another person gives them a text file full of timestamps. A PDF is easier to read and lets you send only what is needed:

1. Open the export in PrintChats.
2. Set From and To to the part they need, so you do not share more of the conversation than necessary.
3. Untick Photos in PDF if you want a small file.
4. Save as PDF and attach the PDF to your email.

A word on privacy

Emailing a chat puts a copy in your mailbox, the recipient's mailbox and the mail servers in between. The chat contains other people's messages too. Send only what is needed, prefer sending to yourself over forwarding the whole conversation, and delete the email once you have the file somewhere safe if you no longer need it there. PrintChats itself never uploads the chat, so making the PDF does not add another copy anywhere.