WhatsApp screenshots or an exported chat: which should you use?
For more than a few messages, use an exported chat. WhatsApp’s export is a text copy of the chat, with the date, time and sender on every message, so nothing is cropped or out of order, and the text can be searched. Screenshots work for one or two messages, or for something an export without media leaves out, such as a photo. You can use both.
What an export gives you, and what it leaves out
- WhatsApp saves the export as a ZIP file, with the chat as a text file inside. Each message starts with its date, time and sender.
- On a phone, WhatsApp asks whether to include media. Choose Without media for a small file of the messages alone.
- View once messages aren’t exported. From a computer, disappearing messages aren’t exported either, and media isn’t included.
- If someone has turned on Restricted chat for a chat, no one in it can export the chat.
The steps for iPhone, Android and computers are on how to export a WhatsApp chat.
Where screenshots fall short
- A screenshot shows only what fits on the screen. A long chat means dozens of images, and it’s easy to miss one or repeat one.
- WhatsApp shows the date once, above each day’s messages. A screenshot from the middle of a day can show the times but not the date.
- Screenshots are pictures of text. Family court e-bundles (Practice Direction 27A) and employment tribunal hearing files (the tribunals’ guidance on electronic documents) both ask for searchable text, made with OCR where pages started as images. Tribunal hearing files also need A4 pages.
Screenshots still make sense for a single message, or to show a photo or how a message looked on the screen. Whichever you use, keep the chat on your phone.
How to use the export, free
- Export the chat from your phone and choose Without media. See how to export a chat. A computer may not hold the whole chat, so use the phone if you can.
- Keep the export file exactly as it is, and keep the chat on your phone. Do any cutting down in a copy.
- Pick the messages that relate to your issue, with the messages either side when they’re needed to make sense of one.
- Put them in date order in a document, exactly as sent, with the date, time and sender.
- Add page numbers and a short index, and save it as a PDF.
- Point to messages by page number in your statement or comments.
What each body asks for: employment tribunals, deposit disputes, family court and small claims.
Or let ChatBundle do it
ChatBundle does the picking and the layout for you. Load your WhatsApp export: it’s read on your device. Check for free that your chat was read correctly, with a sample page of your own messages, before you pay. One bundle is £19, for one chat and one issue.
- After you pay, AI picks the messages that relate to the issue you describe. You untick any, or search the chat and add more.
- Message text is never changed. Each message shows its date, time and sender.
- The PDF has a cover, an index, page numbers and a short, neutral summary with page references.
- The cover shows a fingerprint of your export file, so the bundle can be matched to the original later.
ChatBundle works only from an exported chat. It can’t read screenshots.
What it doesn’t do: it only reads WhatsApp chat exports, not SMS, iMessage or screenshots, and it leaves out photos and voice notes. It doesn’t give legal advice, tell you whether messages can be used, or send anything to a court, tribunal or scheme.
Not legal or HR advice. This guide sums up what official guidance says. It isn’t advice on your case. Rules change, so check the current rules and any orders in your own case before you rely on them.
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