Saving a WhatsApp Chat as a Record or Evidence

By Josep Mampel Marques, updated November 9, 2026

Not legal advice. This page explains how to keep a WhatsApp conversation as a complete, well documented record. Whether a chat, an export or a PDF is accepted as evidence, and in what form, depends on your country, the court or body involved and your case. Ask a lawyer before you rely on it.

To keep a WhatsApp chat as a record, export the full conversation from the phone with media, keep the original export file unchanged, note when and how you made it, and only then make a readable PDF for people to look at. Keep the phone and the chat in WhatsApp as well, because a lawyer or an expert may ask for the original rather than a copy.

Step by step

1. Do not delete anything. Keep the chat in WhatsApp and keep the phone. An export is a copy; the original may matter later.
2. Export the whole chat with media. On Android: More options, More, Export chat, Include media. On iPhone: tap the contact or group name, Export chat, and include media. See the Android and iPhone guides.
3. Also export without media. A text-only export may reach further back in a long chat. Check where each one starts, as explained in export limits.
4. Save to storage, not email. Files, iCloud Drive or Google Drive avoid attachment limits that can cut a large export.
5. Keep the original file untouched. Make a copy for reading and never edit, rename or unzip the original. The export is plain text, which anyone can edit, so an untouched original is easier to stand behind.
6. Write down the context in a short note stored with the file: date and time of the export, which phone and WhatsApp version you used, the chat name and participants, and whether you included media.
7. Record a hash. A hash is a fingerprint of the file that changes if a single byte changes. WITNESS recommends calculating and recording hashes so you can show later that files have not been altered. On a Mac: shasum -a 256 file.zip in Terminal. On Windows: certutil -hashfile file.zip SHA256 in Command Prompt. Save the result in your note.
8. Back it up to a second place, for example an external drive or another cloud account, and consider encrypting it. The export contains other people's messages and photos.
9. Make a readable PDF from a copy, not the original. Open the copy in PrintChats, choose who you are, keep the full date range unless asked for less, leave photos on, and tap Save as PDF. Steps in how to print a WhatsApp chat.

Why a full export rather than screenshots

Screenshots show only what was on screen and can be cropped to remove context. An export carries every message in the range with its date, time and sender, plus system messages such as people joining or leaving a group. A PDF made from the export keeps that order and those dates. Screenshots can still help for things an export does not show, but a full export gives the wider picture. A lawyer can tell you which format, or which combination, is expected in your case.

What an export may leave out

• View-once messages, which WhatsApp says are not exported, and disappearing messages that are already gone.
• Older media in long chats, since WhatsApp attaches only the most recent media.
• Media that was never downloaded or was deleted from the phone.
• Messages that were deleted before you exported, which are no longer in the chat to export.

Write these gaps in your note so nobody is surprised later.

Questions to ask a lawyer

• Is an exported chat, a PDF of it or screenshots accepted, and does the original phone need to be available?
• Does the chat need to be certified, notarised or extracted by a forensic expert where you are?
• Are there rules about sharing messages from other participants, or about chats you were not part of?
• How should the file be delivered, and do you need to keep the original export and its hash?

Keep it private

A chat export holds personal data about everyone in it. PrintChats reads the file in your browser and never uploads it, which matters when the content is sensitive. Wherever you store the export, keep access limited and delete working copies you no longer need, keeping the original as your lawyer advises.