WhatsApp: how to free up space without losing your important voice notes (and turn them into MP3)
WhatsApp is testing a new screen to delete chats and files in a more advanced way. The goal is clear: help you free up storage on your phone by seeing what takes up more space: messages, photos, videos, documents… and of course audios and voice notes.
The catch is that, if you’re not careful, you can wipe out important audios together with the “junk”: client feedback, classes, meetings, ideas… In this guide you’ll see how to use this new feature safely and, more importantly, how to download your WhatsApp audios as MP3 before cleaning so they stay safe and well organized.
🎯 Step 1 before cleaning: save your important audios
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What the new advanced delete screen in WhatsApp looks like
Until now, deleting a chat in WhatsApp was almost “all or nothing”: you confirmed and everything was gone — messages, photos and audios — with little detail about what exactly you were deleting.
With the new tool (rolling out gradually to Android and iPhone), when you go to delete a chat you see a more detailed screen where items are split into:
- Regular messages.
- Starred messages.
- Photos, videos and other media.
- Audios and voice notes.
As you tick what to remove, WhatsApp shows how many MB you’ll free up. And a very useful detail: it asks whether you want to keep your starred messages or not, so you don’t lose what you had already marked as important.
The risk: freeing up space by also deleting valuable audios
Having WhatsApp show you what’s eating up your storage is great, but there’s an obvious risk: when you’re in a hurry it’s easy to tick “audios” as a category to delete and remove voice notes you actually wanted to keep.
Think of everything that usually lives in voice notes:
- Feedback from a client or your manager.
- Instructions from a teacher or tutor.
- Quick ideas you recorded talking to your phone.
- Summaries of meetings and important decisions.
The answer isn’t “never clean up”, but rather save what matters first and only then use the new delete screen. That’s where MP3 comes into play.
How to save and download your voice notes before deleting
Before you use WhatsApp’s advanced cleanup, scroll through the chat and find the voice notes you don’t want to lose. The goal is to take them out of the chat and save them as standalone audio files.
From your phone
- In WhatsApp, long-press on the voice note you want to keep.
- Tap Share or Forward.
- Choose Save to Files, Send by email or Save to Drive/Dropbox.
- Check that the audio file was saved (most often as
.opusor.ogg).
From WhatsApp Web (desktop)
- Open the chat in WhatsApp Web.
- Click the audio and then click Download.
- The file will be saved in your Downloads folder, usually as
.opus.
If you need a more detailed tutorial for PCs, check how to move WhatsApp voice notes to your computer .
Turn your WhatsApp audios into MP3 online (no installs)
WhatsApp stores voice notes as .opus or .ogg — very efficient formats, but
not every car stereo, TV or older player can open them. That’s why it helps to convert them to
MP3 before archiving.
Convert a WhatsApp audio to MP3
- Save the audio file first (from your phone or WhatsApp Web as shown above).
- Open your browser and go to the WhatsApp → MP3 converter .
- Upload the
.opus/.oggfile and pick the quality: for speech, 64–128 kbps mono is usually more than enough. - Click Convert, wait a few seconds and download the MP3.
For a more step-by-step guide by device (Android, iPhone, PC), follow the full tutorial on converting WhatsApp audios to MP3 .
Quality tip: for voice notes and interviews, stick to 64–128 kbps, mono. You’ll get very clear speech and tiny file sizes.
How to organize your MP3s and free up space the smart way
Once your important WhatsApp audios are saved as MP3, you can use the new delete screen with much more peace of mind: even if you remove whole chats, what matters no longer depends on the app.
- Use dates and context in filenames:
2025-12-31-team-meeting-anna.mp3is far better thanaudio123.mp3. - Create topic-based folders: clients, projects, courses… makes searching months later much easier.
- Back up critical MP3s to the cloud (Drive/Dropbox) or an external drive.
- If you have issues with low volume, files that won’t open or weird formats, check the common phone audio problems guide .
🔁 Before using WhatsApp’s cleanup, save what matters
Frequently asked questions
Is this advanced delete screen already available to everyone?
WhatsApp usually rolls out new features gradually. If you still see only a simple confirmation when deleting chats, it’s likely a matter of time or a future update. In the meantime you can still use WhatsApp’s storage manager from the settings menu.
Which format does WhatsApp use for voice notes?
Most phones store WhatsApp voice notes as .opus (sometimes .ogg). It’s efficient, but
not every player supports it, especially car stereos and older devices. Converting to MP3 gives
you maximum compatibility.
Will I lose quality when converting to MP3?
MP3 is lossy, but for speech, using 64–128 kbps usually gives excellent clarity with very small file sizes. The key is to do a single, well-chosen conversion instead of repeatedly re-encoding the same file.
Are my files stored when I convert them online?
A responsible converter will only process your files temporarily for conversion and delete them shortly afterwards. They shouldn’t be shared with third parties or used for other purposes.
Online • Free • Works on mobile and desktop