This is an interactive data visualization where you can draw insights from you iMessage data. Look into how long you spend on iMessages, who likes to text you late at night, who are your best friends and more.

Getting your iMessage data

If you are on a Mac, all of your iMessage data is stored on a local database chat.db located in your ~/Library/Messages directory. The library directory is hidden by default, so getting it can be a little tricky.

1. Open Finder. You should see the toolbar at the top of the screen.

2. Click on Go in the toolbar.

3. Navigate down to the bottom of the dropdown and click on Go to Folder...

4. Go to the search bar and type ~/Library/Messages into the search bar.

This navigates to the special folder where you iMessage data is stored.

5. Find the chat.db file and copy it to your Desktop¹
6. Click on the upload file button below and select the chat.db file you just copied.
7. Wait for the data to load (~ 30-60 seconds)

Visualize your iMessage Habits

Upload your iMessage database to visualize your iMessage habits

Select Your Database Filechat.db

Frequently Asked Questions

Will your data get stolen?

Your data never leaves your device. It is stored locally in your browser. You can even validate this by turning off your interenet connection before submitting your data.

Why is it taking so long to load?

An average user has over 1,000,000 messages — that is a lot of data to process. Executing opperations on your data to find your most active contacts, group chats, favorite times of day to text, etc. takes a lot of searching. Depending on the speed of your computer, this could take a bit of time.

Help! I use my phone too much

I’m sorry, I can’t help you with that. However, here are some resources to get you started:

• How to Break a Phone Addition (The Atlantic)
• Cell Phone Additction: What You Need to Know (Version)
• I’m Addicted to My Phone. How Can I Cut Back? (The New York Times)

Footnotes

1. Where you copy the folder is not important. However you have to copy your chat.db somewhere as Apple forbids direct uploads from the Library folder. ↩