Is There an App to Analyze Viber Messages for Abuse or Threats?
Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·
Short answer
Viber's phone app can email your chat history: open Settings, then Calls and messages, then Email chat history, and you get a zip with your text messages as CSV files. Viber Desktop also keeps the chats it has synced in a file called viber.db. Verity reads either one in your browser without uploading it, lists your chats so you can pick one, flags patterns such as threats, gaslighting and blame-shifting, and can number every message in date order.
Screenshots of a Viber chat lose the dates and are easy to dispute. The export keeps every text with its sender and time, which is what any tool needs to start from.
Step 1: get the chat history
From the phone app
- Open Viber's Settings, then Calls and messages.
- Tap Email chat history and send it to yourself.
- Save the zip from that email. Photos, voice messages and call logs are not in it.
- Don't use the per-chat Backup Chat option instead: it makes a .vcf file for restoring the chat inside Viber, not a readable record.
From Viber Desktop
- Close Viber Desktop.
- On Windows, press Windows-R, type %APPDATA%\ViberPC and press Enter. On a Mac, in Finder press Command-Shift-G and type ~/Library/Application Support/ViberPC.
- Open the folder named after your phone number and copy viber.db somewhere easy to find. It holds only what synced to that computer.
More detail on both is in exporting Viber messages. Deleted messages are not in either; see how long Viber keeps messages.
Step 2: read one chat for patterns
Drop the zip as it came, or the copy of viber.db, into Verity. It lists your chats and you pick one. Where Viber labels a message as yours, Verity uses that; otherwise it works out which side is yours and asks you to confirm. Then it:
- Flags patterns, such as threats, gaslighting, blame-shifting, contempt, demands for replies and floods of messages, each shown with the messages around it.
- Shows who starts and who replies, and how long replies take.
- Numbers every message in date order, to read on screen for free or print as one PDF.
Stand-ins such as "Photo message" or "Sticker" are left out. If your file doesn't open, the upload box says why and offers a way to tell us, without sending the file.
What to check before you upload a Viber export
- Where it goes. The zip and viber.db hold every chat, not just the one you care about. Prefer a tool that reads them on your own device; you can test that by turning the internet off after the page loads (how).
- Whether dates and senders survive, so every flagged message can be found again in the original.
- Your safety. The history is sent to your email, so if someone else can read that inbox, delete the email and the zip when you are done.
What a pattern check can't do
It reads words and timing. It can flag a joke as an insult, miss cruelty that is politely worded, and it can't say what anyone meant or whether a court will rely on it. Photos, voice messages and calls are not read. Our methodology page sets out what Verity measured and where it falls short.
Where does Verity fit?
The free preview shows the patterns found and one flagged message in full, and lets you read every message on screen, numbered in date order. Paid options are one-time: every message numbered in date order ($19), or a report quoting the flagged messages with their dates, grouped by pattern ($99 Standard, $149 Detailed). For other apps, see WhatsApp, Telegram and Android texts.
This is general information, not legal advice. We make Verity, so weigh what we say about it accordingly. Viber is not affiliated with Verity. If you are in danger, call 911; the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.
Check a Viber chat free
Try the sample first, or drop in your export. It is read in your browser and is not uploaded.