Offering a high level of security, WhatsApp has become the chat tool of choice for many businesses. Since it is used for formal business correspondence, it is natural that you want to record some conversations. For legal or commercial purposes or just as a backup, it’s great that WhatsApp lets you export chat history along with all the files the parties exchanged.
Since the default export file for WhatsApp Chat History is an editable text file, someone malicious could abuse it. Therefore, it is wise to keep the chat history in one of the file formats that cannot be easily edited without leaving a trace. This is where the PDF format comes into play.
Export Chat History
As the first step in the process, you will need to export the WhatsApp Chat History directly from WhatsApp. The resulting file is a simple text file with a .txt extension. The file name is automatically created in the format “WhatsApp Chat – Chat Name.txt”.
- Open the WhatsApp application on your smartphone.
- Go to the conversation you want to export.
- Tap on the Options menu – the three dots in the upper right corner of the conversation window.
- Tap “Other”.
- Tap “Export Chat”.
- A notification will appear where you can choose whether to export media files exchanged in the chat. If you export media files, they appear as separate files with the chat history file containing the text chat messages. For this guide, let’s say you choose the “Medialess” option.
- Select one of the available services to which you want to send the export file. The easiest way is to send him your email, whether it’s Gmail or any other email client you use. You can also send the export file to an online storage such as Dropbox or Google Drive.
- If you have chosen to send by e-mail, simply type your e-mail address on the next screen and send it. If you are submitting to an online repository, you will need to browse to the folder where you want to save your export file.
- Now go to your inbox to find the email with the attached exported file and download the attachment. Once that’s done, go to the downloads folder and locate the export file to make sure it’s there. If you sent it to an online repository, navigate to the folder you selected earlier and locate the exported file. If you want to use your computer to convert to PDF, you can move the export file to your Desktop to make it more useful.
Now that you have your chat history .txt file, it’s time to convert it to PDF.
Convert Chat History to PDF
You can use one of the common text editors such as Microsoft Office Word or the XPS Office application to convert the chat history .txt file to PDF. You can do this using your computer or directly on your smartphone if you have one of the text editor apps installed.
Microsoft Office Word
In the case of Microsoft Word, let’s say you do this on your computer for this guide.
- Open Microsoft Word.
- Click on the “File” tab from the top menu.
- Click “Open”.
- Click “Browse”.
- The “Open” menu will appear. Here you need to browse to the location of your WhatsApp Chat History file saved.
- Since Word expects you to open a Word document (.docx) by default, you must now tell it that you really want to open a .txt file. At the top of the “Open” menu, you will see a drop-down menu next to “All Word Documents (*.docx)”. Click that and then select the file type as “Text Files (*.txt)”.
- Your export .txt file should now appear in the target folder on the main screen of the menu. Select it and click the “Open” button in the lower right corner of the menu.
- Word will now open your WhatsApp Chat History file and you should be able to see chat messages with timestamps.
- Next, you need to save it in PDF format, so click on the “File” tab from the top menu.
- Click “Save As”.
- Click “Browse”.
- The “Save As” menu will appear. Here, select the destination folder for your PDF file.
- At the bottom of the menu, click the “Save as type” drop-down menu and change the file type to “PDF (*.pdf)”.
- Click the “Save” button located at the bottom right of the menu.
This will create the WhatsApp Chat History PDF file in the location you selected.
XPS Office Application
If you have the XPS Office application on your smartphone, you can use it to convert the Chat History .txt file directly to PDF.
- Tap the Chat History file you exported, as described in the “Exporting Chat History” section of this guide.
- If you sent it to your email, open that email and tap the attached exported .txt file.
- If you sent it to your online storage (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.), find the file and tap it.
- Now you have to select the application you want to open the file with. Tap “WPS Office” in the “Use a different app” section.
- WPS Office will now open your Chat History file.
- Tap the “Tools” icon from the submenu.
- Tap “Export to PDF”.
- A PDF preview will open.
- Now tap on the “Export to PDF” button.
- Select the location where you want to save this file and tap “Export to PDF”.
This will eventually save your WhatsApp Chat History to your smartphone as a PDF file.
Keeping Your Chat History Safe
Whatever software you use to convert WhatsApp Chat History to PDF, it will now remain an official record of those conversations. You might even consider exporting your chat history every month. That way, you can keep monthly backups in case of any business problems.
Did you manage to convert your WhatsApp Chat History to PDF? What text editor did you use to do this? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.