The WhatsApp chat export format, explained

Useful if you want to process an export yourself – or understand why a script that worked on one phone breaks on another.

Updated 2026-10-26 · 4 min read

Line format

Android (example, English, 24-hour):

26/10/2026, 14:05 - Dana: See you at 6
26/10/2026, 14:06 - Avi: 👍

iPhone:

[26/10/2026, 14:05:31] Dana: See you at 6
[26/10/2026, 14:06:02] Avi: 👍

iPhone lines start with a bracketed timestamp including seconds and often contain invisible direction marks (U+200E).

What varies

Date order (DD/MM, MM/DD, YYYY-MM-DD) and separators follow the phone's region.
12-hour times with AM/PM (sometimes with a narrow no-break space).
Translated system messages (“Messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted…”, “X added Y”).
Multi-line messages: continuation lines have no timestamp.

Media

Without media: <Media omitted> (wording varies by language).
With media: the attachment file name and “(file attached)” on Android, or <attached: 00000012-PHOTO-2026-10-26-14-05-31.jpg> on iPhone; the files are in the zip.

Skip the parsing

Convobook handles all of these variants and exports clean Excel/CSV with real date-time columns, sender and text – ready for analysis.

Open your exported chat. Convobook reads the .zip or .txt from WhatsApp's “Export chat” (Android and iPhone, many languages and date formats) and turns it into a chat-bubble PDF with photos, a single-file HTML archive, or Excel/CSV – in your browser, nothing is uploaded. Reading the whole chat and exporting the first 100 messages is free; a 30-day pass is $9, lifetime $19.

Open the converter – free

Questions and answers

Why does my script mis-read dates?

Day/month order depends on the phone's region; detect it from the whole file (values over 12 reveal the order).

Is the file UTF-8?

Yes, exports are UTF-8 text.

Sources and product names: Observed WhatsApp export formats on Android and iOS. WhatsApp is a trademark of WhatsApp LLC; Meta of Meta Platforms, Inc. Convobook is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by them. This page is general information, not legal advice.