Print your iMessage conversation.

To print an iMessage conversation, start on the Mac that holds it — there is no export or print button on iPhone. Read chat.db from ~/Library/Messages in your browser, then either format the raw history into a document yourself or build an instant keepsake from it and print the PDF.

Printing an iMessage conversation starts with getting the conversation somewhere printable. iMessage offers no print button, and there is no export on iPhone — the conversation lives in a database file on your Mac called chat.db, and every printing route starts there.

Step 1: get the conversation off your Mac

On the Mac that has the conversation in Messages, open Finder, press Cmd+Shift+G, paste in ~/Library/Messages, and find chat.db — the complete local database of every Messages conversation on that Mac. The import screen walks through it step by step, including the Full Disk Access prompt macOS shows the first time a browser reads that folder — or read the full iMessage export guide first. One caveat: if Messages is set to keep history for 30 days or one year instead of Forever, older messages may already be gone from the file before you ever open it.

Route A: print the raw conversation

Once the data is readable, you can copy the messages into a document or spreadsheet and print from there — the straightforward, fiddly route. It works, and you get the verbatim record: every message in order, with dates and timestamps. The tradeoff is that you print raw chat logs, and a years-long history becomes a very long document with no story in it.

Route B: build a keepsake, then print it yourself

Story of Us starts from the same file and builds something different: not a reprint of the conversation, but a short keepsake written from the patterns inside it — your pet names, your rituals, the year you talked the most, the phrase you didn’t know you repeated. Drop chat.db straight into your browser — the file itself is read locally, never uploaded — and read the result together on screen in about a minute. Then download it as a PDF and print it yourself, at home or a print shop: a few nice pages that read like a book of your own words, instead of weeks of waiting.

What you get

A short, private keepsake built only from your own history — pet names and inside jokes it noticed on its own, your year-by-year rhythm, your busiest hour, the words you reach for without thinking. You read it on your screen, then you can download it as a PDF to keep or print yourself, no subscription and nothing shipped. It's ready in about a minute.

Privacy, plainly

The export itself never leaves your device — it's read right there in your browser, the same way a photo opens on your computer. To write the handful of captions that need real words (your busiest year, your first exchange, the phrase you didn't know you repeated), we send a much smaller slice to our server: your most-used words and phrases, counts and rhythms (who texts more, your streaks, your busiest hour), and a very small handful of sample messages — your first few texts and your most recent. Not the export file, not your full conversation. Read exactly what we send →

Which route should you pick?

Pick the raw print if you need the verbatim record — messages, dates, timestamps, everything in order. Pick the keepsake if you want something you would actually hand someone: the story in the messages rather than the messages themselves, printed the same day. Plenty of couples do both: read the keepsake together, keep the raw export filed away.

Make our iMessage keepsake one-time · no subscription · stays on your laptop

Talk on WhatsApp instead? Make a WhatsApp keepsake →

Start from the export itself: iMessage export guide, step by step →

The keepsake itself: iMessage chat keepsake →

Beyond iMessage: Turn any text messages into a book →

Keepsake vs. printed book, in detail: the full comparison →

Just curious about the raw numbers? Count your texts free, right on this device →

Making it a gift? See the anniversary keepsake →