Kept as a placeholder
Video messages stay in their exact spot in the conversation but download as a labelled placeholder rather than a playable file, for now.
Everything the archive keeps
A tour of what shows up in your export.
Each of these is a real part of the same index.html the extension writes - not a promise, a rendering.
Formatting
WhatsApp’s own markdown, rendered properly
*bold*, _italic_, ~strike~ and `code` become real HTML, not literal asterisks. URLs and email addresses turn into clickable links automatically.
- Emoji-only messages render large, the way WhatsApp itself displays them
- Fenced
```code```blocks keep their monospace formatting
Check the final brief - it’s in
brief_v3.pdfGot it, reviewing now. Ping me at ops@studio.example if it’s urgent10:12 ✓✓
🎉
Replies
Quoted replies that jump to their source
Every reply keeps its quote bar exactly as WhatsApp rendered it. Click a quote inside the exported archive and the page scrolls straight to the original message - even if it’s thousands of lines up - and briefly highlights it.
Reminder: standup moved to 9:30
You: Reminder: standup moved to 9:30
Got it, updating my calendar09:04 ✓✓Media
Stickers, photos, documents and voice notes
Media is downloaded through WhatsApp’s own decrypt path and saved into a media/ folder next to the archive - images sit inline, documents become downloadable cards, voice notes become playable audio.
- Video keeps its place in the conversation as a labelled placeholder for now
- Only media already cached by this WhatsApp Web session can be recovered
🧋
PDF
Q3-report.pdf
2.1 MB
0:14
Groups
Senders, mentions and forwards, labelled
Group exports show who sent each message, render @name mentions as chips instead of raw phone IDs, and flag forwarded messages - matching what you’d see live in WhatsApp Web.
Vishal
Looping in @Sundarbans on this one
↪ Forwarded
Here’s the finalized brand kitContact aliasing
Recognize people, without editing the file
Every archive ends with a small “Recognize people” panel. Match a saved contact to a phone number and rename it for your own reading - the change applies only in your open browser tab. The archive file on disk always keeps its original names.
Exported as “Ojha ji”→Ojha ji (Uncle)
Exported as “+91 98••• •••2”→Delivery bot
Theme sync
Follows WhatsApp Web’s own theme, live
Toggle WhatsApp Web between light and dark and the export panel switches with it immediately - no separate setting to hunt for, no jarring mismatch floating over your chat.
Dark
Light
History depth
You decide how far back it goes
Pick the last 1,000 messages for a quick save, 5,000 for a fuller thread, or everything this WhatsApp Web session has already synced. Only messages already loaded here are ever available - older history that lives solely on your phone can’t be reached.
1,0005,000All synced
Said plainly
What it doesn’t do - yet
A short, honest list, so there are no surprises after you export.
Synced messages only
WhatsApp Web only ever holds what it has synced from your phone. If a message never loaded here, the extension can’t retrieve it either.
Best-effort by design
If WhatsApp hasn’t cached decryptable bytes for a file, that message keeps a typed placeholder instead of a broken link.