A practical workflow to export, preserve, and summarize WhatsApp chats for legal or dispute contexts. Not legal advice.
Feb 10, 20269 min read
People make agreements on WhatsApp. They negotiate prices, confirm deliveries, approve changes, and make promises. When something goes wrong, those messages become the evidence.
This post is not legal advice. It is a practical workflow for exporting, preserving, and organizing WhatsApp conversations so they are useful to a lawyer, mediator, or advisor. What you do with the summary is between you and your legal counsel.
Why screenshots are not enough
Screenshots are fine for a single message. They fall apart when:
The timeline matters (you need to show sequence, not isolated messages)
Context matters (a "yes" means nothing without the question it answered)
The conversation spans weeks or months
Key points were made in voice notes that screenshots cannot capture
The other party disputes what was said
For anything beyond a simple "they said X on this date," you need a complete export with a structured summary.
Step 1: Export the conversation correctly
Use WhatsApp's built-in export function to generate a `.zip` file of the conversation. Include media if voice notes contain relevant terms, agreements, or commitments.
Important things to know about WhatsApp exports:
WhatsApp may truncate old messages. The export limit varies by platform (up to 40,000 messages on some versions, 10,000 on others). Check that the date range of your export covers the period that matters.
If export is blocked by an admin's privacy settings, you may need that changed. See the advanced chat privacy guide.
Export from both sides if possible. Your export and the other party's export should match, which strengthens credibility.
Save the original `.zip` file untouched. Do not rename it, do not unzip it, do not edit anything inside it.
Store it somewhere with a timestamp: cloud storage, email it to yourself, whatever creates a record of when you had it.
Work only on a copy.
If you ever need to demonstrate that the export has not been tampered with, you want the original file with its original metadata intact. Editing the `_chat.txt` file or removing media files from the archive undermines that.
Step 3: Generate two summary documents
A lawyer does not want to read 5,000 WhatsApp messages. They want two things:
A chronological timeline of key events (1-3 pages)
Create a chronological timeline of key events from this chat. Only include events relevant to: agreements, payments, delivery, deadlines, changes, cancellations, and disputes. For each event include: date, participants involved, what was agreed or disputed, and a short excerpt from the chat. Use neutral tone throughout. End with: (1) open questions and (2) information that appears to be missing from the conversation.
If voice notes are included, ThreadRecap will transcribe them and merge them into the timeline automatically. This matters because in many disputes, the real agreement lives in a voice note that nobody wants to replay ten times.
Generating the issues list
Run a second Custom Prompt with:
List the disputed or potentially contentious issues as a structured list. For each issue: what each party appears to claim, the messages that support each side, and whether the point was resolved or remains open. Mark anything uncertain as uncertain.
Why two passes instead of one
A single analysis tries to do everything and often compromises on depth. Two focused passes produce a tight timeline and a detailed issues breakdown, which is exactly the format professionals can work with quickly.
Step 4: Include voice notes when they matter
In many business disputes, the actual terms were agreed in a voice note. "Just send me a voice note with the details" is how people negotiate on WhatsApp.
If voice notes are part of the evidence:
Include media in your WhatsApp export
ThreadRecap transcribes voice notes using OpenAI Whisper and merges them chronologically into the chat text
The transcript becomes part of the timeline, treated the same as any text message
You can review transcriptions for accuracy before relying on them
This is worth the extra credits. A timeline that ignores voice notes has gaps, and gaps in evidence are worse than no evidence.
Step 5: Hand off cleanly
Ask your lawyer or advisor what format they prefer. A typical handoff package:
The untouched original export `.zip` file
The timeline summary (PDF or markdown)
The issues list
Any supporting files referenced in the chat (invoices, contracts, images)
A brief cover note explaining the context and what you are asking for
Privacy considerations for sensitive chats
When dealing with potentially legal conversations, be thoughtful about where the data goes. Some things to evaluate in any tool you use:
Is the chat file parsed locally before anything is sent to a server?
Are photos and videos excluded from processing?
Is raw chat text stored after analysis, or only the summary output?
Can you delete your data?
ThreadRecap parses exports client-side, never uploads photos or videos, and does not store raw chat content. Only the analysis output is saved if you choose to keep it. Full details in the privacy policy.
A note on admissibility
Whether WhatsApp messages are admissible as evidence depends on your jurisdiction, the type of proceeding, and how the messages were obtained and preserved. This varies significantly between countries and even between courts.
What this workflow gives you is a well-organized, credibly preserved record that a legal professional can assess. The question of what is admissible is for your lawyer.
Upload your chat to ThreadRecap and get a structured timeline and summary in minutes. 10 free credits on signup, pay-as-you-go after that. Credits never expire, and you only pay for what you use.
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