The most used app on smartphones is without a doubt WhatsApp, which allows you to chat with all our friends and relatives using the phone numbers saved in the address book as a basis. If we have to change the phone or we want to keep a copy of all the conversations and photos shared on WhatsApp, we will have to use the automatic backup system offered by the app itself or one of the alternative methods to be able to save this type of data. In this guide we will show you how to save WhatsApp chats, conversations and photos, showing you for each data the official methods supported by the app and some alternative methods to access the database containing all the conversations exchanged with our contacts, both on Android devices and on iPhone.
How to save WhatsApp chats
The methods described below will allow you to save all WhatsApp chats, so that you can restore them in the event of a change of phone or to be able to read them on a PC. Photos can be saved both with the internal backup and using the backup features offered by some free services.How to backup WhatsApp internally
The automatic backup system in WhatsApp is very precise and effective, including both chats and multimedia elements inside.To activate the internal backup of WhatsApp on Android we open the app on our smartphone, press the menu with the three dots at the top right, select the Settings menu, press the Chat menu and finally press Backup chat .
To immediately back up, press on Run Backup and confirm the Google account to be used (the backup will be uploaded to Google Drive ). To allow the app to automatically back up, press the Backup on Google Drive item and choose between.
The backup will automatically include both chats and shared photos; if we also want to include videos, just activate the check mark on the Include video item. From the screen we can also choose whether to backup only via Wi-Fi or using the data network (only if we have a very large mobile Internet subscription, at least 20 GB).
To activate the internal backup of WhatsApp on the iPhone, we open the app on the iPhone, press Settings, select Chat and finally press Backup chat .
To run the backup immediately, click on Back up now ; to schedule future automatic backups, press the Auto backup item and choose between Daily, Weekly or Monthly. The backup of WhatsApp on iPhone will be uploaded to iCloud, the cloud service offered by Apple.
To restore the chats and multimedia contents, all we have to do is log in with the specific account on the smartphone (Google on Android and iCloud on Apple), reinstall the app on the new phone and enter our mobile number : at the first access, the presence of the backup will be checked and we will be asked if we want to restore it.
As easily understood, it is not possible to pass a cloud backup of Android on iPhone (and vice versa), unless you use alternative methods such as those shown in our guide on How to transfer Whatsapp from one phone to another or to another number .
How to backup WhatsApp photos and videos
An alternative method to save photos, images and videos on WhatsApp involves the use of the Google Photos app, available free for Android and iOS.Once the app is installed on the phone and logged into it with our Google account, we open the menu at the top left (with the three horizontal lines), press Settings, select the Backup and synchronization menu and finally click on Folders of the backed up device .
In the screen that will open, make sure to activate the check mark next to the items WhatsApp Images (to save all the images), WhatApp Video (to save the videos) and WhatsApp Animated Gifs (to save the GIFs shared in the chats).
The folders will be synchronized on Google Photos and on Google Drive, so as to be accessible even outside the internal backup of WhatsApp (even in the case of a different backup between iPhone and Android).
READ ALSO: How to save Whatsapp photos
How to export a single chat
A little known method for saving WhatsApp chats involves exporting chats via email . To perform this type of operation, open the WhatsApp app, go to the chat we intend to save, press on the three dots at the top right and then select the Other -> Export chat item .
The app will ask us if we want to include the multimedia elements in the export; make the choice then choose from the phone sharing menu where to save the exported backup. For convenience we can save the exported chat on Gmail (so that we can reread it calmly, saving it between drafts), send it to Telegram (which has a personal chat where you can save any file without limits), save it on Drive (with the Save in button Drive) or send it to another phone with Bluetooth or ShareMe (Xiaomi devices only). If we want to save the backup of the chat in the internal memory of the phone and make it readable, just select the entry Save in, so as to open the file manager integrated in the phone and choose the folder where to save the copy of the chat.
Conclusions
The various elements of WhatsApp (chat and multimedia files) can be easily saved using the backup systems integrated in the app, the cloud services present on each modern smartphone or manually exporting the chat of our interest, so that we can retrieve or read it in a second moment.In another article we showed you how to restore and recover Whatsapp messages and history .
If instead we want to discover other tricks and tips for WhatsApp, we invite you to read our Whatsapp guide : 30 Cheats and secrets of chat on Android and iPhone .
We fear that our WhatsApp account is under control "> Can you spy on Whatsapp? How to protect chats and messages from hackers and spy apps.
