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How-To

Is There an App to Print Text Messages With Dates and Times?

Reviewed by Jacob Reed, founder of Verity ·

A stack of blank white pages held by a deep teal binder clip beside a phone with a dark screen and a green apple on a grey linen tablecloth

Short answer

Neither iPhone nor Android prints a whole conversation, and screenshots lose the order. Export the conversation from your phone or app, then drop the file into Verity: it reads it in your browser, numbers every message in date order with its date, time and sender, lets you read the whole list on screen for free, and prints it as one PDF for $19.

See what gets flagged in a sample chat →Have the file? Number every message, free →

A numbered list lets a lawyer or a judge point to one message ("see #1,482") and shows that nothing between the messages was left out.

Step 1: export the conversation

Step 2: number it, read it, print it

Drop the file into Verity. The numbered list has:

  • Every message numbered in date order, with its date, time and who sent it, from the first message to the last.
  • Read times where the export has them, such as iMessage read receipts, TalkingParents "viewed" lines and OurFamilyWizard first-viewed times.
  • Photos and deleted messages in their place (WhatsApp and SMS backups so far), marked without a number, so the numbers stay the same.
  • The dates you choose. Print only the months that matter, and each message keeps its number from the whole conversation.
  • A cover page with how many messages it holds and which numbers.

Reading the whole list on screen, with a search box, is free. The printable PDF is $19, one time.

What to check before you print

  • The whole conversation, both sides. A printout of only their messages, or only the bad weeks, invites the question of what is missing.
  • Nothing edited. Keep the original export file as it came; the printout is a copy of it.
  • Where it is read. The file holds every message with the other person. Prefer a tool that reads it on your own device; you can test that by turning the internet off after the page loads (how).

Printing a short exchange from screenshots instead? See how to print text messages for court and, for Android, printing Android texts.

Where does Verity fit?

The numbered list is the plain record. If you also want the patterns, Verity's free preview flags messages such as threats, gaslighting and blame-shifting, and the reports ($99 Standard, $149 Detailed) quote each flagged message with its number in the same list. For a tool that reads a whole chat, see the iPhone and Android guides.

This is general information, not legal advice. Courts differ in what they want; ask your lawyer or the court's self-help center how to file or bring it. We make Verity, so weigh what we say about it accordingly. If you are in danger, call 911; the National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233.

See your messages numbered, free

Try the sample first, or drop in your export. It is read in your browser and is not uploaded.

See what gets flagged in a sample chat →Number every message, free →