Saving a WhatsApp conversation with someone you lost

Years of everyday messages, voice notes and photos can become very precious. Phones get lost, replaced or reset, so it’s worth keeping a copy that doesn’t depend on one device or one app.

1. Export the chat

Export it with media so the photos come too (iPhone · Android). Save the .zip somewhere safe, like a computer, a USB stick or cloud storage, and keep more than one copy. The zip also contains voice notes as audio files you can play on a computer.

2. Make a readable copy

The export itself is a plain text file. To read it like the conversation it was, open it in Paperthread and choose the Chat layout: speech bubbles, photos where they were sent, the dates between days. You can print it or keep the PDF.

Your messages are processed on your own device and never uploaded, which matters for something this personal.

3. Keep the phone backup too

Also keep WhatsApp’s own backup (iCloud or Google Drive) switched on, so the chat stays in WhatsApp as well.