Have you ever needed to print out important WhatsApp conversations, perhaps for legal reasons or to save precious memories? Taking dozens of screenshots is tedious and impractical. Luckily, there’s an easy way to export your entire WhatsApp chat history to a printable file. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to print WhatsApp messages from your Android phone.

Step 1: Open the WhatsApp Chat You Want to Print

First, open the WhatsApp app on your Android phone. Navigate to the chat conversation that contains the messages you want to print. This could be an individual or group chat.

Step 2: Tap the Three-Dot Menu and Select More

With the chat open, tap the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of the screen. This will open a dropdown menu. From the menu options, select More. This will reveal additional chat options.

Step 3: Choose “Export Chat”

From the expanded menu, tap on Export chat. This will allow you to export your entire WhatsApp conversation with that contact as a text file.

Step 4: Decide Whether to Include Media

WhatsApp will prompt you to choose whether you want to export the chat with or without media. Exporting with media will include all the photos, videos, voice messages, and other files shared in that conversation, which will significantly increase the export file size. If you just need the text, select Without Media.

Step 5: Select How to Share the Exported Chat

After choosing your media preference, WhatsApp will generate a .txt file with your chat history and open the Android share sheet. From here you have several options:

• Email the file to yourself or someone else
• Upload it to cloud storage like Google Drive
• Send it to your computer via Bluetooth
• Save it to a file manager app on your phone

Choose the method that works best for you. For this example, we’ll save it to a file manager app.

Step 6: Open and Print the Exported Chat File

Now that you’ve exported the WhatsApp chat, it’s time to print it:

1. Open your file manager app and locate the exported .txt file.
2. Select the file and open it with Google Docs or another text editor.
3. Review the chat history to make sure everything looks correct. The file will show the date, time, and content of each message.
4. Tap the three-dot menu and enable Print layout to optimize the formatting for printing.
5. Tap Share & export and then Print.
6. Select your printer, modify any print settings if needed, and tap the print button.

That’s it! Your WhatsApp chat will now print out for you to save or share as a hard copy. The text file preserves the original look of the conversation, with each message on its own line along with a timestamp.

Limitations and Alternatives

While exporting WhatsApp chats to print is convenient, there are a few limitations to keep in mind:

• You can only export one conversation at a time. Repeat the process for each chat you want to print.
• Exporting with media may not always work due to file size limits when sharing.
• The exported chat appears as a text log rather than in the WhatsApp user interface style.

If you need more advanced WhatsApp printing and exporting options, there are some third-party tools available like iMyfone and Backuptrans. These allow you to print chats from multiple conversations at once and maintain the look of the WhatsApp layout. However, the free chat export method described above should work well for most users.

Conclusion

Printing a hard copy of your WhatsApp messages is useful for record-keeping, but it’s also a good idea to regularly back up your WhatsApp data digitally. WhatsApp can automatically back up your chat history and media to Google Drive. This ensures you never lose your conversation history even if you switch phones.

To enable WhatsApp backups on Android:

1. Open WhatsApp and go to the Settings menu
2. Tap Chats and then Chat backup
3. Select Back up to Google Drive and choose your backup frequency and Google account

With secure cloud backups and the ability to export and print your chats, you can make sure your WhatsApp conversations are always preserved. Whether it’s sentimental messages you want to hold onto or important information you may need to reference, you now know how to keep your WhatsApp history safe.