How to analyze a Snapchat chat
Snapchat chats come into WholeThing as screenshots. Know first that Snapchat marks a chat when someone screenshots it, so the other person will see that you did. Pick up to 20 screenshots, taken as you scroll with a little overlap. WholeThing reads the words on your phone and counts what’s visible, like who sent more. Screenshots carry no times.
First: Snapchat shows them you took a screenshot
This is the part to know before anything else. Snapchat’s own list of chat icons includes one that means “A screenshot has been taken of your Chat.” When you screenshot a conversation, the other person sees that icon.
That isn’t something WholeThing can change or hide, and it wouldn’t if it could. If you’d rather they didn’t know, don’t screenshot the chat. WholeThing is for a conversation you’re part of, read in the open.
Snapchat chats don’t stay by default
By default, Snapchat deletes one-to-one Chats 24 hours after everyone has viewed them, or 31 days after they were sent, whichever comes first. You can change a chat to delete right after viewing, 7 days after viewing, or never, and saving, replying to or reacting to a message keeps it longer.
So a Snapchat conversation often only has a short stretch on screen at any time, and a quick read can only count what’s there. If you talk on WhatsApp as well, a full export keeps every message, with its time.
How a quick read works
WholeThing is coming soon to iPhone. For apps without a chat export it reads screenshots, and it calls that a quick read.
- 1In WholeThing, choose Screenshots, then Choose screenshots. The picker shows the screenshots in your photo library; pick up to 20.
- 2The words are read off each picture on your phone, with Apple’s own text recognition.
- 3WholeThing tells the two of you apart by where each message sits across the screen: yours on one side, theirs on the other. If the pictures don’t make that clear, it asks: “Which side is you?”
- 4Messages that show up in two overlapping screenshots are counted once.
- 5A receipt shows how many screenshots and messages it found, and then you say who the person is to you and what you’re curious about.
It needs about 12 messages, with both of you in them, before it can say anything specific.
WholeThing only uses the position of each message to tell who wrote it, not names or colors. Before you pick your screenshots, check that your messages and theirs sit on different sides of the screen. If both of you run down the same side, it can’t split them reliably.
How to take the screenshots
- Open the chat and scroll to where you want to start. Close the keyboard so more of the chat fits.
- Take a screenshot: side button and volume up together on an iPhone with Face ID; the Home button and side button on one with a Home button.
- Scroll a bit less than a screen and take the next one. Overlap is fine; each message is counted once.
- Get both of you in. A quick read needs messages from each side of the conversation.
- Keep text sharp and messages whole. A message cut off at the edge is only half read.
- Use ordinary screenshots, not Full Page captures, so they save to your photo library.
If WholeThing can’t read them
WholeThing says so, in plain words, and says what to change:
- “We couldn’t read those.” The text wasn’t clear enough to read. Screenshots of the chat itself work best, with sharp text and whole bubbles.
- “That doesn’t look like a conversation.” Only one person’s messages were visible. Add screenshots where both of you appear.
- “There isn’t much to read yet.” Fewer than about 12 messages came through. Add more of the conversation.
Each one comes with a button to pick different screenshots, or to choose a different source.
What a quick read can and can’t show
Everything a quick read shows is counted from the words in your screenshots, and every card ends with “From these screenshots.” With enough to go on, that can be:
- who sent more of the messages you captured,
- who writes longer messages,
- a word you both keep using (your shared language),
- what you talk about most.
Screenshots carry no times WholeThing uses, only the order the messages appear in. So there’s no who texts first, no reply times, no longest silence and no week things changed. Snaps, photos and voice notes aren’t counted, because a quick read reads words only.
And it knows nothing outside the screenshots. What it finds is true of those messages; it isn’t a verdict on the friendship or the relationship, and it can’t tell you what anyone meant.
What happens to your screenshots
The pictures never leave your phone; the words are read from them on the device. Then it works like any chat: every number is counted on the phone, and to write the sentences on the cards, the counted facts and short excerpts are sent to a language model with phone numbers, emails and links removed first. The sentences are kept on WholeThing’s server for 30 days, tied to a fingerprint of the screenshots rather than to you. No account, no ads. Where a chat goes.
Questions
- Does Snapchat tell someone I screenshotted our chat?
- Yes. Snapchat shows a screenshot icon on a chat when someone takes a screenshot of it.
- Can WholeThing read old Snapchat messages that already disappeared?
- No. It reads only what’s in your screenshots, and a chat Snapchat has deleted isn’t on screen to capture.
- How many screenshots can I use?
- Up to 20 in one read, showing about 12 messages or more from the two of you.
- Does it count Snaps or voice notes?
- No. A quick read counts written messages only.
- Can it read a group chat?
- No. WholeThing reads conversations between two people.