An iMessage thread, read in full from a text file
iMessage has no export button. Clark accepts a plain-text file you prepare yourself — one message per line, with the sender and the time in front of it — and reads the whole conversation from there.
What you need to bring
A plain-text file of the conversation. One message per line, with the sender’s name and the time in front of it, is the shape that reads most reliably, but the parser is deliberately tolerant and recognises several layouts.
We do not ship an iMessage exporter, and macOS has no simple export for a whole conversation. If you cannot produce a text file for it, the honest answer is that the WhatsApp side is easier to feed today.
If the file cannot be recognised you get a clear error instead of a report built on a guess. We would rather refuse a file than write something wrong about it.
What a pasted iMessage thread reads like
A text file from Messages is not shaped like a WhatsApp export, and that changes what the report can say:
Relative dates are the hard part
Text copied out of Messages says “Today 09:41” and “Yesterday 22:04”, not a date. Clark reads what it can from the file, and where a timestamp cannot be recovered the report works from the order of messages instead of inventing a calendar.
Tapbacks are not sentences
A “Loved” or a thumbs-up is a reaction to a message, not a reply to it. Reactions are separated from the conversation so that an acknowledgement does not read as a response.
Edited and unsent messages
Where the file records that a message was edited or withdrawn, the report treats it as what it is: a message that was changed after it was sent.
Two people, or a small group
iMessage threads are usually two people and occasionally four. Every participant is read separately, and in a small group the report says which pair is doing most of the talking.
The long gaps
A thread with someone you have known for a decade usually holds years of nothing between short bursts. Clark reports the gaps rather than averaging them away.
Why it is hard to read your own iMessage thread
An iMessage thread is the least edited thing most people own. Plans are made in it, apologies happen in it, and the word “fine” arrives eleven times in nine days — and once it is long, the only way to read it is to scroll.
A file of the whole thing, read once, in order, fixes the one thing the app cannot: distance. That is the entire product, and it works the same on a plain-text file as it does on a WhatsApp archive.
Questions people ask about this one
Where do I get the text file?+
We do not publish an iMessage exporter, and macOS has no built-in export for a whole conversation. What you need is a text file containing the conversation, one message per line with the sender and the time. The iMessage export notes linked at the bottom of this page describe the shape that reads most reliably, and say plainly what we cannot do today.
Are you going to add an exporter?+
It is not part of this build, and we are not going to put a date on it. When there is something real to use, it will appear on the iMessage export notes page.
What if my file is in the wrong format?+
You get an explicit error saying the file was not recognised. Nothing is guessed, and no report is written from a file we could not read.
Does a pasted conversation work?+
Sometimes. If you copy a thread out of Messages and paste it into a text file, the messages are there but the dates are relative. Clark reads what it can, and where the timeline is incomplete the report leans on order rather than inventing dates.
Which platform is easier right now?+
WhatsApp, today: it produces the file for you. iMessage depends on you producing the text file first. If both are available for the conversation you care about, start with WhatsApp.
Nothing is charged until you decide to read past the free part of a report.