Exporting Telegram, WhatsApp and LINE chats, and reading them

Two posts on r/Telegram show the usual trouble. In one, the poster could open the exported messages.html, but none of the images showed up. In the other, someone had picked the JSON option and found nothing to read it with.

WhatsApp users run into the same thing from the other side. A post on r/whatsapp asked how to turn an exported zip and txt back into something that looks like WhatsApp, and then into a PDF.

What each app gives you

Menu names change between app versions. If you can't find one, check that app's help pages.

WhatsApp: txt or zip

Open the chat. On Android tap ⋮, on iPhone tap the contact's name, then More > Export chat. WhatsApp asks whether to include media. Without media you get one txt; with media you get a zip holding _chat.txt and the photos, voice notes and files. The export goes through your phone's share sheet, so choose email, a cloud drive or Files to keep it.

Telegram: JSON or HTML

Telegram's own blog describes the export tool as part of Telegram Desktop, the computer app. Export one chat from the ⋯ menu in that chat, or many from Settings. You pick the format: HTML, laid out for reading in a browser, or JSON, a data file meant for programs. Photos and other media come along if you tick them.

Both formats produce a folder, and the photos sit in subfolders next to the main file. If messages.html is copied somewhere without those folders, it has no images to show. Keep the folder together.

LINE: a plain txt

According to LINE's help pages, on a phone you open the chat menu, tap Settings, then Export chat history; on Windows or Mac you click the menu at the top of the chat and choose Save chat. Two notes from the same page: only the messages that currently appear in the chat are saved, so scroll back first if you need older ones, and a txt export can't be used to restore chats in LINE. Photos are not included.

Reading the export like a chat

Drop the file, the zip or the whole folder onto the Chat Backup Viewer. It works out which app the export came from and lays it out in bubbles that look like that app. Leave zips zipped. Nothing leaves your device; the file is read inside this browser.

• WhatsApp: drop the zip as it is to see the photos, or the txt if you exported without media.
• Telegram: drop the export folder, or a zip of it. result.json and messages.html both work, so there is no need to export again as HTML. Photos you included show up on the Media tab.
• LINE: drop the txt. Photos appear only as a placeholder, because the file never had them.

Choose your name under Me at the top and your bubbles move to the right. Use Search to find a word, Go to date to jump to a day, and Stats for message counts per person and charts by hour and weekday. Some exports, such as some Telegram HTML ones, don't record a time zone; a notice appears, and choosing the zone the chat was exported in puts the times right.

When photos are missing

• WhatsApp exported without media has no photos in it. Export again with media.
• Telegram only includes photos you ticked in the export window, and they live in folders beside the main file. Drop the whole folder.
• LINE txt files never contain photos, and no viewer can bring them back.

What it can't do

The viewer is read only. It can't edit or delete messages, can't put an export back into the app, and can't recover deleted chats. Discord and WeChat aren't supported yet. To keep a chat on paper, see how to save a chat as a PDF; for what an export is and isn't, see backup vs chat export.

Open the Chat Backup Viewer

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