How to Export WhatsApp Chat History in PDF?

Whatsapp is the default messaging platform for many smartphone users worldwide. And it even has the feature of adding a business account which makes it a...

Sagar Choudhury

Last updated on May 1, 2024

Sagar Choudhury

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A techno freak who loves new gadgets and always keen to know about the latest games and everything happening in and around the technology world. He has a massive interest in Android and streaming devices.

Whatsapp is the default messaging platform for many smartphone users worldwide. And it even has the feature of adding a business account which makes it a convenient communication tool for many people in business. On top of it all, it is one of the safest platforms where users have the feature to send almost any form of media to their friends and family. Sometimes these users might want to keep a backup of it all, and Whatsapp does have the feature of backing up conversation data.

How to Export a WhatsApp Chat History as a PDF file?

Initially, when you create a backup of a conversation from Whatsapp, it is created in the .txt format. And this backup can be created directly from the Whatsapp messenger application. But we don’t want a backup in a .txt extension. We want it in a PDF format. So we will have first to create a backup using the Whatsapp messenger in .txt format and then convert that .txt file to .pdf(PDF) format using another program or application.

Exporting the chat from Whatsapp:

For this, you need your smartphone with the latest version of Whatsapp installed on it.

Launch the Whatsapp application.
Go to the conversation that you want to export.
Tap on the three-dot icon in the top right corner of the conversation screen and choose More.
Then in the next list of options, choose Export chat.
A pop-up will show up on your screen asking whether you want to create the backup with the media in the conversation or without it. If you choose to create the backup without the media, only the conversations will be stored. And if you choose to create the backup with the media, all the media files will appear as separate files and the chat history file containing the text messages.
Then you will see a list of options for sharing the exported file. Since you want to keep the backup for yourself and convert it later to pdf, you can choose Email or Online Cloud storage services in this list. If you choose, the backup file will be attached in a mail and sent to whichever email address you enter in the next screen. If you choose one of your cloud services, then you will pick the directory where you would like to store the backup file.
If you sent your backup over through an email to one of your email addresses, then open up the inbox for that email and download the backup file attached with the mail. If you chose to store in a cloud storage service, open up that cloud storage service folder where you have the file and download it from there.

Once you have the downloaded .txt backup file, you can convert it to .pdf format. You can perform the conversion on either a smartphone or a PC. Here we have included the pdf conversion guide for both of them.

Converting the exported chat to .pdf in Desktop:

For converting a .txt file to .pdf format, you can choose one of the text editor applications. We will use the Microsoft Office Word application for this guide.

Open up Microsoft word on your desktop.
Click on the File tab in the top left corner of the Microsoft Word window.
Then choose Open > Browse.
The file explorer window will show up. Here go to the directory where the backup file is downloaded on your computer. Microsoft Word, by default, works with .docx files, and to see the .txt files in the directory, you must manually set it to that value. In the bottom right corner of the explorer window, you will see the Open button, and right next to it, there will be a drop-down menu. Open up that drop-down menu and change the file type from “All Word Documents ” to “Text files.” Your backup file will now show up. Click on that file to select it, and then click on Open.
The backup file will now show up with all its content in the word program, and you will see all your text messages here along with their time stamps.
Now click on the File tab option in the top left corner of the Microsoft Word application again and choose Save As.
After that, click on Browse, and the file explorer window will show up again. This time choose the directory where you want to store the .pdf file. Once you get to the destination folder, set the name for the backup file you are storing as a pdf file and then select the format. The name option will be there at the bottom, along with the Save as type option. Set any name that you want, and then open up the drop-down menu next to the Save as Type option. Here, choose the option PDF.
Finally, click on Save, and your backup file will be stored in the selected destination folder in the pdf file format.

If you want to perform this conversion on your smartphone, you will need to use a text editing mobile application.

How to Export WhatsApp Chat History in PDF?

How to Export a WhatsApp Chat History as a PDF file?

Exporting the chat from Whatsapp:

Converting the exported chat to .pdf in Desktop:

Converting the exported chat to .pdf in a smartphone:

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