The tagline of this site is applicable again.
The too-cool-for-school crowd decided that the thing to do for private messaging would be use WhatsApp.
Yeah, about that.
Your messages are not irretrievable. Sorry, Hunter. No, Mister Lawyer, it’s not illegal. If the intended recipient got them, and stoed them somewhere accessible, they’re there to be snarfed.
CyberSekurity r hard.
Even if E2E encryption works, they do get stored.
Though it’s not straightforward, you can export ALL messages, and the contents contained therein.
These are not forever private if they’re stored somewhere locally.
If you’re trying to use them to avoid records being kept, that’s your issue.