Threats or Harassment on WhatsApp: What to Do and How to Keep the Messages
Threatening or harassing messages on WhatsApp: what to do first, how to keep the messages and voice notes before blocking or reporting, and where to make a complaint.
If you are in immediate danger, call the emergency number: 999 in the UK, 911 in the US, 112 in India and across Europe.
Threatening or harassing messages make you want to delete them and block the sender straight away. Blocking is fine — but first keep a copy, because what you delete can’t be shown to anyone later.
1. Keep the chat #
Don’t delete the conversation, individual messages or voice notes, even the ones you’d rather not see again. Don’t forward them to other people to “save” them; that changes nothing about the original and spreads them further.
Also note the sender’s phone number. Open the chat, tap the name at the top and take a screenshot of the contact info. WhatsApp’s export shows the name as saved in your phone, not the number.
2. Export it — with media #
Threats often come as voice notes, and those are only kept if you export with media.
- Open the chat on your phone.
- Android: ⋮ → More → Export chat. iPhone: tap the name → Export chat.
- Choose Include media and save the file somewhere that isn’t only the phone (email it to yourself, cloud storage).
Guides: Android, iPhone. If messages keep coming, export again later: a new export contains the whole chat up to that day.
3. Then block or report #
On WhatsApp, Block stops new messages; Report sends WhatsApp the most recent messages and may get the account banned. If the report screen offers to delete the chat as well, make sure you’ve exported it first.
4. Make a complaint #
- UK: 999 in an emergency; otherwise 101 or your police force’s website.
- US: 911 in an emergency; otherwise your local police department.
- India: 112 in an emergency; for online harassment, the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or the 1930 helpline.
You don’t need to know whether what happened is a crime. Describe it, bring the messages, and let the police decide. Harassment from a colleague or a manager may also be a workplace matter — see WhatsApp messages with your employer.
5. Make it readable #
A police officer or a lawyer has to read the conversation, often a long one, with voice notes they won’t listen to one by one. Upload the .zip to Zap2Doc and you get a PDF with every message in order with date, time and sender, photos in place, and voice notes transcribed where they were sent, marked as transcriptions. Page numbers let you write a short list — “threat on page 4, 12 March, 23:10” — to hand over with it. The preview is free.
Keep the original export and the phone. The PDF is a presentation of your export. It isn’t authentication, a forensic report, a chain of custody or legal advice.