In family law, parties frequently have to prove what information has been exchanged between two spouses. When the parties communicate via letter or e-mail, it is easy to produce reliable evidence: just photocopy the letter or print the e-mail message. Text messages, however, are not quite so easy. It is not practical to physically take a cell phone into court, and it is certainly not possible to send a cell phone to an adverse attorney during discovery. Given the wild popularity of text messaging in recent years – in 2011, more than 6 billion text messages were sent per day in the U.S. alone – odds are good that if you go through a divorce, you will need to preserve a text message to show a judge or attorney.
There are several ways to document a text message thread for use in court, though none of them is a perfect solution. The simplest method is to take one or more screenshots of the text message thread. On an iPhone, press the home button and the lock button on your phone at the same time. If you have done so correctly, the screen will flash white briefly. For Android phones, the easiest way to take a screenshot varies from phone to phone. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S3 and S4 can be configured so that you can swipe the edge of your hand (in a karate-chop gesture) across the screen from left to right. Search the web for information specific to your phone model if you use an Android device. Whichever platform you use, the screen shot will appear in your phone’s photo gallery, and you can then distribute it as an e-mail attachment just like any other photo.
The drawback of using screenshots is that if you need to document a long exchange of messages, it may take quite a few screenshots to capture everything. For longer text message threads, there are several options for iPhones and Android phones.
iPhone
- Several companies sell software packages that manage the music, photos, videos and apps on an iPhone that also back up and save your text messages, voicemails and call history. Two examples are iExplorer and iMazing (formerly DiskAid). Each one will let you export the text messages you have exchanged with one person and save them as a text file, CSV file (a tabular format that can be read by spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel) or a PDF file. At $35.00 and $29.99 respectively, they are not cheap, but they are probably some of the more user-friendly solutions available.
- Decipher TextMessage ($29.99) saves iPhone data from your iTunes backups to your computer. Decipher TextMessage exports plain-text conversations or conversations with images and attachments from your iPhone, Pad and iPod Touch devices. Your message history is searchable and deleted texts can be recovered. It includes free activation on two devices and unlimited computer installations. Decipher VoiceMail (sold separately) is also available for saving voicemails.
- A few apps in the iTunes App Store also help you export your text messages. One example is SMS Export ($4.99), which can export your text messages into various file formats. This app may be a bit more confusing to set up – it requires you to download the app through iTunes and then download another file through your web browser and install it on your computer – but it is relatively straightforward to use.
- Finally, there is another way to extract your text message history from the backups that iTunes regularly makes of all your iPhone’s contents. The website http://www.iphone-sms.com/ will let you upload one of these backup files and export your text messages to an easily viewable format. There is no charge for using this service, but it takes a little bit of tech-savvy to find the correct backup file on your computer. This service also does not let you see your text messages exchanged with just one contact. You will need to open the list of text messages in a spreadsheet program to pare the file down so it contains only your texts with one particular contact.
Android
- SMS to Text Pro is an app available for $1.30 from the Google Play store. It will allow you to export your texts from one or more contacts and filter them by date, then export the resulting list to one of several file formats. The exported file can be saved to your phone’s SD card or sent as an e-mail attachment, either to yourself or to someone else.
- SMS to Text is the free version of the SMS to Text Pro app described above. The free version’s only limitation is that it will not let you send the exported file as an e-mail attachment. To access the file, you will need to use a USB cable to connect the phone to your computer and use your computer to find the file on your phone’s SD card.
- Another free app called SMSBackup+ will back up your text messages as individual e-mail messages and store them in your Gmail account. You can then log into your Gmail account through a web browser and use Gmail’s flexible search and filter features to find the messages you want and print them out.
It is important when going through family law litigation that you discuss with your attorney the best method for you to preserve your text messages if they are important to your case.
Posted by Attorney Sophya Qureshi Raza. Raza practices family law where she effectively guides clients through dissolution of marriage, modifications of prior judgments, and resolving child custody and paternity disputes. She also helps families with legal guardianships and conservatorships for the elderly and disabled.