# Compliance Archiving for WhatsApp, iMessage, Email & 40+ Channels Archive WhatsApp, iMessage, email, and 40+ channels for SEC Rule 17a-4 & FINRA compliance. Source: https://commacompliance.com/compliance-archiving Last updated: 2026-07-30 --- Compliance Message Archiving # Every channel your team uses. One exam-ready archive. Comma captures business communications across 40+ platforms from the moment they're sent, stored in tamper-protected WORM storage. [Get in Touch](/get-in-touch) Compliance archiving isn’t difficult because of the regulations. It’s difficult because your employees don’t just use email anymore. They use WhatsApp, iMessage, Signal, Bloomberg Chat, and dozens of other channels that legacy archiving platforms struggle to capture. Comma captures business communications across [40+ platforms](/platform-integrations) from the moment they’re sent, then preserves them in tamper-protected [WORM storage](/resources/worm-storage) designed for SEC Rule 17a-4 retention. When regulators ask, the archive is already complete. Compliance archiving means capturing and preserving business communications in a form regulators can inspect. For broker-dealers and investment advisers, regulations including SEC Rule 17a-4, SEC Rule 17a-3, FINRA Rule 3110, and MiFID II require those records to be retained and produced on demand. Legacy archivers struggle with these channels for a specific reason. Three things trip them up: - ### There is no compliance API to call WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal don't expose a feed for archivers to pull from. Tools built around APIs simply can't see these channels, so they either skip them or ask your people to change apps. - ### Sync-based capture leaves gaps Archivers that copy from a backup or a periodic sync miss anything sent between cycles, and anything edited or deleted before the next pull. A gap in the record is a finding in an exam. - ### The message lives on the device Business conversations on personal phones never touch a server your archiver can reach. If capture doesn't happen on the channel itself, the record never exists. ## Regulators worldwide are moving on off-channel messaging In 2026 the UK's FCA reviewed 11 wholesale banks and found 178 internal policy breaches over off-channel communications, 41% of them involving directors or above. Hong Kong's SFC has fined firms HK$10.85M for the same failures. Canada's CIRO has issued $10.3M. The enforcement playbook that started in the US is now global, and it lands on exactly the channels email archiving never touched. *Image: Unified archive showing Gmail, WhatsApp, and iMessage messages in one searchable inbox* Google, WhatsApp, and iMessage: one archive, one search, one export ✕ *Image: Unified archive showing Gmail, WhatsApp, and iMessage messages in one searchable inbox* ## Capture before messages disappear Most mobile messaging platforms weren't designed for compliance. Messages can be edited, deleted, or live only on a device. Comma captures business communications at the point they're delivered, before they can disappear, and writes them directly to your archive. 1. ### iMessage, WhatsApp, Gmail, Microsoft 365, Bloomberg Chat, and Signal Source code for Signal and WhatsApp capture is public on GitHub. We cover the platforms your team actually uses, including the ones without public APIs. [See the full list of 40+ platforms we cover →](/platform-integrations) 2. ### Business conversations captured. Personal ones left alone. Most archiving tools capture everything or nothing. Comma captures based on who someone is talking to: business contacts get archived, personal ones are left alone. No behavior change required, and personal messages are never stored. [See how this applies to BYOD environments →](/byod-messaging-compliance) 3. ### Every message, indexed and ready for review Timestamps, contact data, full message threads: all indexed from the moment of capture. Filter by platform, custodian, date range, policy match, or thread type. When the exam comes, your archive is already organized. [See how exam-ready cases work →](/exam-ready-cases) 4. ### WORM storage from day one Every message Comma archives is stored in WORM (Write Once, Read Many) storage designed against SEC Rule 17a-4. No pre-exam scramble. The archive is already in the right format. [View our Trust Center →](https://trust.commacompliance.com/) ## Frequently asked questions What is compliance archiving? Compliance archiving is capturing business communications and retaining them in a tamper-protected, searchable record that a regulator can inspect. It exists so firms can prove, after the fact, exactly what was said and when, across every channel their people use for business. Which regulations require compliance archiving? In the US, SEC Rule 17a-4 and 17a-3 and FINRA Rule 3110 govern how broker-dealers preserve and supervise electronic communications. In the EU, MiFID II sets equivalent recordkeeping duties. The rules apply to the content of a business conversation regardless of which app it happened on. Does compliance archiving cover WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal? It has to, if your team uses them for business. These are the channels most legacy archivers miss because they have no public API. Comma captures them at the point a message is sent, alongside email and 40+ other platforms. The source code for our Signal and WhatsApp capture is public on GitHub. Are employees' personal messages archived? No. Comma archives based on who someone is talking to. Business contacts are captured, personal ones are left alone and never stored. No behavior change is required from the person on the device. What is WORM storage, and why does Rule 17a-4 reference it? WORM (Write Once, Read Many) storage means a record cannot be altered or deleted once written. SEC Rule 17a-4 requires broker-dealer records to be kept in a non-rewriteable, non-erasable format so an examiner can trust that what they are reading is what was originally captured. Comma writes every archived message to WORM storage from the moment of capture. ## See how compliance archiving should work. A 20-minute walkthrough: real capture across 40+ channels, real-time flagging, exam-ready exports. [Get in Touch](/get-in-touch)[Pricing](/pricing) Related reading - [SEC Rule 17a-4: What It Requires and How to Comply](/regulations/sec-17a-4) The foundational rule governing electronic record retention for broker-dealers. - [AI Platform Compliance](/ai-platform-compliance) How Comma archives ChatGPT and other AI tools used in regulated workflows. - [Platform Integrations](/platform-integrations) The full list of 40+ channels Comma captures.