How to keep the WhatsApp messages of someone who has died

The short version

Export the chat from your phone, choosing to include media if you'd like their voice notes and photos. Save that file in at least one place outside your phone, and keep WhatsApp's own backup switched on. Exporting takes about a minute but it could take much longer, depending on the size of the chat. Exporting a chat doesn't change anything in the chat.

Will their messages disappear?

The messages in your chat live on your phone, so they stay in your WhatsApp after someone has died. What happens to their account doesn't remove the copy you already have.

WhatsApp generally deletes accounts that have not connected to the service for 120 days, although the period is 365 days for accounts based in the US. Even then, messages already stored on your phone remain there until WhatsApp itself is deleted from that phone.

Their profile photo and 'About' line may stop showing, so if their photo means something to you, save it now: open the chat, tap their name, tap the photo, then save or share it.

The few ways a chat can slip away

A chat is safe in WhatsApp for as long as your phone and your backups are. It can slip away when:

1. a phone is lost, broken or replaced without a backup
2. the chat is deleted, or 'Clear chat' is tapped by accident
3. a storage clean-up removes photos, videos or voice notes to free up space
4. disappearing messages are switched on, so new messages vanish after 24 hours, 7 days or 90 days

Turning on disappearing messages does not delete messages that are already in the chat. But it does mean messages sent after that point will disappear unless someone keeps them.

An export is a copy that lives outside WhatsApp, so none of these can touch it.

If seeing the chat feels like a lot

You can archive it. Archiving moves the chat out of your main list without deleting anything, and you can open it again any time from 'Archived'.

Step 1: export the chat

Exporting makes a copy of the conversation as a file. It doesn't change the chat, and nobody is notified.

On iPhone

1. Open the chat in WhatsApp.
2. Tap their name at the top.
3. Scroll down and tap 'Export Chat'.
4. Choose 'Attach Media' to include voice notes and photos, or 'Without Media' for the messages only.
5. Tap 'Save to Files', email it to yourself, or share it to another app.

On Android

1. Open the chat in WhatsApp.
2. Tap the three dots in the top corner.
3. Tap 'More', then 'Export chat'.
4. Choose 'Include media' or 'Without media'.
5. Save it to Google Drive or to your phone's files, email it to yourself, or share it to another app.

Labels shift a little between versions. Our step-by-step export guide walks through both phones with pictures.

If the conversation matters, it's worth doing both. A text-only export tends to reach further back in long chats, and an export with media holds the voice notes and photos.

Step 2: keep the file somewhere safe

An export saved only on your phone is only as safe as your phone. Keep it in two places, for example:

1. iCloud Drive or Google Drive
2. your computer
3. an email to yourself with the file attached (this works well for text-only exports, as exports with media are often too large)

Give the file a name you'll recognise later, like their name and the date you saved it.

Step 3: keep WhatsApp's backup on

An export is a snapshot of today. WhatsApp's own backup keeps the live chat safe if your phone changes. You'll find it in WhatsApp under Settings, then Chats, then Chat backup, where you can see when it last ran and start one now. iPhone backs up to iCloud, while Android backs up to your Google Account or WhatsApp cloud storage.

Keeping their voice notes

Voice notes are often the thing people treasure most. They're only included when you export with media.

Inside the zip file, each one is a small audio file, usually ending in .opus, often with the date it was sent in its name. Some phones won't play .opus files straight away. VLC, a free app, plays them on any phone or computer.

In very long chats, an export with media may not include the oldest media. If a voice note you remember is missing, our guide to missing messages and voice notes shows how to find and save a single one.

If the chat is no longer on your phone

If the chat has gone from your WhatsApp, a backup may still hold it.

1. Check the date of your last backup under Settings, then Chats, then Chat backup. If it ran before the chat went, the chat is likely in it.
2. Export what you have now first. A restore brings your chats back as they were when the backup ran, so newer messages may not come with it.
3. Restore the backup. Delete and reinstall WhatsApp, sign in with the same phone number, and tap 'Restore' when it offers your backup.

Important: if messages are already missing, do not create a new backup, delete the existing backup, or reset your phone first. WhatsApp stores only the latest successful cloud backup for a phone number, so a new backup could replace the one that still contains the missing chat.

On Android, there may also be recent local backup files on the phone itself, which can sometimes help if the chat disappeared in the last few days.

WhatsApp does not keep messages on its servers once they have been delivered. Undelivered messages are deleted after 30 days. That is why your phone backup, rather than WhatsApp itself, is the place a missing chat can come back from.

Before you change phones

A new phone is when chats most often go missing.

WhatsApp's 'Transfer chats' option, under Settings, then Chats, moves your chat history directly from your old phone to your new one. It works when both phones are the same type: Android to Android, or iPhone to iPhone.

A fresh export before you switch keeps a copy that does not depend on the move going smoothly.

A gentle way to keep them close

I built EM to help keep the chats after my own loss. I didn't want to simply save my export on some drive and have it stay there. I wanted a way to relive our conversations and voice notes whenever I needed them.

EM takes the chat you've exported and brings back the messages you sent each other on this day in past years, one card at a time. You upload the file exactly as WhatsApp gives it, no unzipping. You can mark a chat as in memory of someone, and EM's fact cards are written with that in mind.

Encrypted before it leaves your device. Only you can read your memories.

EM is free to start. Hearing their voice notes on the day they were sent is part of EM Premium.