Frequently asked questions
If something’s missing here, the privacy policy covers data handling in more depth.
Yes. Group exports label each message with its sender’s name, render @mentions as chips, and flag forwarded messages - all of that is DM-only content otherwise, since a one-to-one chat has no sender labels to show.
It’s possible. The extension reads WhatsApp’s internal WAWeb* modules by name, and WhatsApp occasionally renames or restructures them. The injector uses defensive fallbacks across a few known module shapes, but a large WhatsApp Web release can still require an update on this end.
No. The extension makes no network requests of its own. It only reads data already decrypted in your browser’s memory and calls WhatsApp Web’s own media-download functions - the same ones the page already uses when you view an image or play a voice note yourself.
Not yet as playable video. A video message keeps its exact place in the conversation but comes through as a labelled placeholder rather than a downloaded file, for now.
Only as far as WhatsApp Web has already synced to this session - older messages that live solely on your phone aren’t reachable from the browser tab. Within that, you choose the last 1,000 messages, the last 5,000, or everything currently synced.
No. WA Rich Export is an independent, unofficial project. WhatsApp is a trademark of WhatsApp LLC, and this extension is not endorsed by or associated with WhatsApp or Meta.
Wherever your browser normally saves downloads. The export finishes as a single .zip - unzip it and open index.html in any browser, any time, with no internet connection or extension required to read it later.
Yes - every archive ends with a “Recognize people” panel where you can rename a contact for your own reading. It only changes what you see in that open browser tab; the archive file on disk keeps its original names, and a page refresh reverts to them.
Yes. The export runs inside your live WhatsApp Web tab, so keep it open and on the same chat until the download finishes - closing it or navigating away mid-export cancels the job.
Confirm the extension is enabled on its extensions page, then reload the web.whatsapp.com tab. The panel only injects on that domain and appears once a chat is open.
Still have a question?
Check the full privacy policy, or dig into exactly what the extension exports.