WhatsApp has become one of the most popular messaging apps, with over 2 billion active users worldwide. Many people use WhatsApp to communicate not only one-on-one but also in groups. WhatsApp groups allow you to chat with multiple people at once about shared interests, coordinate events, share photos and videos, and more.
Over time, your WhatsApp groups can accumulate a lot of important conversations, media, and other data. You may want to export your WhatsApp group data to back it up or transfer it to another app. WhatsApp provides a way to export your group chats and media into a ZIP file that you can save to your computer or device storage.
Why Export WhatsApp Group Data?
Here are some common reasons you may want to export your WhatsApp groups:
- Back up your group data: Exporting lets you save a copy of all your groups’ messages, photos, videos, and other content. This serves as a backup you can turn to if you ever lose access to your WhatsApp account.
- Free up phone storage: WhatsApp media and chats can take up a lot of storage space on your phone. Exporting and then deleting old groups helps free up storage.
- Switch phones: If you’re getting a new phone and want to transfer your WhatsApp data, exporting from your old phone makes it easy to import into the new one.
- View data without WhatsApp: The exported ZIP file lets you view your groups’ content on your computer without needing the WhatsApp app.
- Share group data: You can share the exported ZIP file to give other people access to a group’s chat history and media.
Requirements for Exporting WhatsApp Groups
Here are the key requirements for exporting your WhatsApp groups:
- The latest version of WhatsApp installed on your phone
- Enough storage space on your phone to create the ZIP file
- Access to your phone’s files/storage to locate the ZIP file after exporting
- A computer, email, cloud storage, or external drive to transfer the ZIP file to after exporting
How to Export WhatsApp Groups on Android
Follow these steps to export your WhatsApp groups on Android:
- Open WhatsApp and tap the More options icon (3 vertical dots).
- Tap Settings > Chats > Chat backup.
- Tap Back Up. This will start creating a backup of your chats to your phone’s internal storage.
- Once the backup finishes, tap More options again.
- Tap Email chat backup. This will export your backup as a ZIP file attached to a new email in whatever email app you use.
- Send the email with the attached ZIP file to yourself or save it somewhere safe like Google Drive.
- The ZIP file will contain a media folder with your group media and a txt file with your chats.
Alternatively, you can use a file manager app on Android to directly access the WhatsApp/Databases folder where backups are saved. Copy the most recent backup file (usually ending in .crypt12) to another location to export it.
How to Export WhatsApp Groups on iPhone
Follow these steps to export your WhatsApp groups on iPhone:
- Open WhatsApp and tap Settings.
- Tap Chats > Chat Backup.
- Tap Back Up Now to start creating a backup of your chats.
- Once the backup finishes, open the Files app on your iPhone.
- Go to On My iPhone > WhatsApp > Databases.
- Find the latest .crypt12 backup file and tap the Share icon.
- Choose Mail to email the file to yourself. Alternatively, you can use AirDrop, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, etc.
- The backup file contains your chats and media.
How to Export Only Specific WhatsApp Groups
By default, exporting through WhatsApp’s chat backup will include all your chats – individual and group. If you only want to export specific groups, you have a couple options:
- Use a third-party Android app like ChatExport to select certain groups to export.
- Export everything, then use a ZIP extractor tool to only keep the .txt files for the groups you want.
Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to only export certain groups within WhatsApp itself. The app always backs up and exports all chats.
What Does the Exported WhatsApp Group Data Include?
The exported WhatsApp group data in the ZIP file contains:
- Media folder – Contains any photos, videos, GIFs, voice messages, documents, or other media files ever shared in the groups.
- .txt files – Text files with the entire chat history from each group. This includes names, dates, and contents of all messages.
Profile photos shared in groups are not included. The media folder only contains media actively shared into group chats, not media uploaded to WhatsApp more generally.
How to View Exported WhatsApp Group Data
Once you’ve exported your WhatsApp groups and transferred the ZIP file to a computer, you can view the data like so:
- Use a ZIP extractor or file compression tool to unzip/extract the .zip file.
- Open the Media folder to view all exported group media files.
- Open each .txt file in a text editor to view the full chat history from that group.
On Android, you can also unzip the backup file and use SQL tools like SQLite Browser to view the database tables containing your chat data.
How to Transfer Exported WhatsApp Groups to a New Phone
To move your exported WhatsApp groups to a new phone:
- Export your group data from your old phone as above.
- Save the ZIP file to cloud storage like Google Drive or iCloud.
- On your new phone, install WhatsApp and verify your number.
- In WhatsApp, tap Settings > Chats > Chat backup > Import from Google Drive or iCloud.
- Select the backup ZIP file to import. WhatsApp will extract and restore all your chats.
You can also transfer the ZIP file manually by connecting your new phone to a computer to copy it over.
Limitations of Exporting WhatsApp Groups
While exporting WhatsApp groups provides a full backup, there are some limitations to be aware of:
- No export encryption – Backups are not end-to-end encrypted like WhatsApp chats.
- No export selectivity – You can’t choose specific chats or date ranges to export.
- No export scheduling – Backups can’t be automated on a schedule, only done manually.
- No profile photos – Only shared media is exported, not people’s profile pictures.
Also keep in mind the exported chats and media can take up a lot of storage space depending on how much activity your groups have.
Alternative Ways to Preserve WhatsApp Groups
Aside from the built-in export feature, there are also alternative ways you can preserve your WhatsApp group data:
- Use a third-party backup app to schedule encrypted backups.
- Frequently take screenshots or screen recordings of important group conversations.
- Use online cloud backup solutions tailored for WhatsApp data.
- Save key media, docs, and messages to external storage or hard drives.
While native WhatsApp backup is convenient, combining it with other manual or third-party backup methods ensures you have multiple copies of your important groups.
Conclusion
Exporting WhatsApp group data provides a straightforward way to backup your chat history, media, and other content. While the exports have some limitations, they offer an easy self-contained package for backup, transfer, or simply freeing up phone storage.
Just be sure to follow the steps carefully, particularly when transferring the exported ZIP file to a new device. With over 1 billion people using WhatsApp groups daily, being able to reliably export your chats provides useful peace of mind.