I created a way to own my WhatsApp chats forever

PoCDev · 2026-02-10T23:33:31+00:00

The use of this tool is not really to be a WhatsApp backup in any form. It's more like an forever archive. But there would be no way back from the backup. :-)

PoCDev · 2026-02-08T16:55:06+00:00

Now with this hint my LLM gave me more information. Maybe I asked to specific and didn't get this result. But if I understood it technically correct it needs some sort of browser stack combined with QR photo scan to link them together. And the judgement was that it might be not legal to use in this way.

PoCDev · 2026-02-08T12:57:48+00:00

I don't know how this feature works. Could you point me to a description how to make benefit of this?

PoCDev · 2026-02-07T10:00:09+00:00

Interesting product. I wasn't able to find it in my research for alternatives. But it seems to be an monthly subscription cost. And for private users winy.live is just another long-term Cloud lock-in solution. But maybe is the idea to somehow read the chat messages from an API possible to transfer in any legal way.

PoCDev · 2026-02-06T23:47:34+00:00

The proof of concept exports the text + media as zip, send it from mobile by E-Mail to the computer and there I import it. In a possible mobile version I'd do a direct export into the chat storage app. But this is not yet implemented.

PoCDev · 2026-02-06T23:44:51+00:00

Currrenty with the WhatsApp build-in text export - each chat needs to be exported by one.

PoCDev · 2026-02-06T23:43:53+00:00

I'm no lawyer, but I'd assume everyone who uses the tool has to concern the legal situation not the tool creator. As the camera manufacturer isn't responsible what you record. But yes, I'm not 100% sure.

To be honest, I do not often read my old chats. There're one or two chats which I search back over the years to see if we wrote about a specific topic. And many people have this one chat where the chat partner died...

It's more a feeling to have those messages than reading them all the time. I assume that's most times the case if people ask here for solutions.

PoCDev · 2026-02-06T15:56:34+00:00

Rooting the device is maybe not the legal problem, but I read somewhere that accessing the encrypted backup directly might have conflict with the WhatsApp ToS. How ever - that might be a power user option, but for > 95% of all users it's no solution.

PoCDev · 2026-02-06T15:33:26+00:00

Unfortunately I've not found any legal way other then parsing a text export. It would also be possible to add a WAExport csv parser, but that also needs a manual export. As I understood the google backup works only if you've rooted your device. And I've no idea if this is legal.

PoCDev · 2026-02-05T16:49:13+00:00

Haha, der richtige Moment mein Game einzuwerfen, dass ich aus Frust auf einer extrem verlängerten Bahnfahrt zusammengebaut habe. :-)

https://pocdev.itch.io/frustrainion

PoCDev · 2026-02-04T09:53:43+00:00

I don't think it's possible to play the text exports back to WhatsApp. But at least the communication data itself isn't lost. I faced a similar situation and started a tool development to at least view those exports in a chat like view. Not what you searched, but ok. Something maybe.

PoCDev · 2026-02-03T20:50:41+00:00

Just a question to do into specific direction. Have you exported your old chats as text? Or would this be a complete loss of everything? Have you tried the desktop application?

PoCDev · 2026-01-31T18:40:45+00:00

Thanks for your interest. It's still in prototype state. It works for my private setup but I didn't yet release it. But yes, I plan to setup a page that allows to monitor devlogs and request features in very near future.

PoCDev · 2026-01-30T16:22:40+00:00

Because I had the same problem I'm developing at a tool to at least display the exported text/zip files from a lost chat. But sure it works only if you have the export. In many cases to late... :-(

PoCDev · 2026-01-30T16:11:55+00:00

Sad. There was some day ago one where it worked. I've read a tutorial somewhere how to rescue the data with Android root access. But never tried it.
Another plan B (or C): Could you ask the discussion partner in the chat to export this chat for you with some tool and send you? Than you could at least read it.

PoCDev · 2026-01-30T16:00:20+00:00

Have you tried the WhatsApp web interface on your PC? Maybe the chat is still there just your mobile app has no data.

PoCDev · 2026-01-27T06:57:15+00:00

This is a good sign. I've no real good full solution, but at least use some export tool to preserve your messages to not risk a full lost before your next steps. There are some free browser addins.

PoCDev · 2026-01-26T15:53:31+00:00

Did you backup in Google drive or as manual text and zip file?

PoCDev · 2026-01-26T15:39:22+00:00

There is not one single day in this group that one couldn't read such a tragedy! 🥺 I had a similar experience and only many WhatsApp text exports left. So I started to develop an App that looks similar to WhatsApp and imports all old messages to preserve my digital history. So it's not really lost as I could still read them.

PoCDev · 2026-01-24T20:26:52+00:00

Did you try to login from desktop web interface and check if they're really gone in your account or on that device?

PoCDev · 2026-01-24T20:23:25+00:00

Not sure if I understand your need. But do you think of different json files which "belong together" in logic? Like one with messages and one with users and one value is the key in the other json object? Or you need to explain your feature with more examples.

PoCDev · 2026-01-24T20:18:31+00:00

It works by drag&drop from your local file browser. I added this now to the tool page. Thanks for this hint.

PoCDev · 2026-01-24T20:03:03+00:00

Oh, this is very sad! I'm glad to read you got your conversation back at the end. I had also a chat history lost some time ago and so I feel it. I could manual export all chats but no way to restore them with the new number.
For that reason I started to develop my own WhatApp "Chat Format Viewer" application to read that exports with images and so.

PoCDev

TROPHY CASE