How to Convert WhatsApp Messages to Text (SMS) on Android
- Download and open Mei
- Open WhatsApp and select the conversation to convert
- Open Mei and find the imported messages
Generally, there isn’t an easy way to take all the conversations you’ve had over the years on one messaging platform to another. But thanks to a feature in WhatsApp that allows you to “export” a single conversation, now there’s a way to copy a single WhatsApp conversation into your local texting or SMS/MMS database on Androids.
To do this, Android users can use an app called Mei in Google Play. Despite it being a texting app, it has a built in WhatsApp-to-SMS import feature that allows you to convert your conversations in WhatsApp into a universal SMS format, so any of your texting apps can access it.
STEP 1: DOWNLOAD AND OPEN MEI
Once you download and open up Mei, you’ll be prompted to allow it to be your default SMS app. This can be temporary, but necessary to allow Mei to write the imported messages into the phone’s SMS database. You can immediately change back to your default SMS app after the conversion. Or you can keep Mei as your default texting app (it’s pretty good, and has an optional AI).
STEP 2: OPEN WHATSAPP AND EXPORT
Once you’ve enabled the SMS permission for Mei, open up WhatsApp and go into the conversation you’d like to export and hit the menu icon in the upper right corner. Select “Export chat”
Select “WITHOUT MEDIA”
Click on the Mei logo
Confirm the export.
STEP 3: OPEN MEI AND SEE THE IMPORTED MESSAGES
The imported conversation will be combined with the text conversation you’ve had with the same contact (the app matches telephone numbers to find the right contact). Appended to the end of the body of the imported messages will be [WhatsApp Import] so you’ll be able to differentiate which were imported and which were exchanged via text.