Open Messenger files in your browser
The messages Facebook and Instagram give you in Download your information, read back as the conversations they were. Open them right here. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your chat opens as its conversation, each message in a bubble in its sender's color, with the days, replies, reactions and calls, and the photos and voice notes the export holds.
- Every conversation • Each person in a color of their own
- Search • Every match counted, and a date jumps to its day
- Stats • Who wrote how much, by hour, weekday and month
- Export • Save as PDF, CSV or text
About Messenger
Meta's Download your information, in Accounts Center, gives you a ZIP of what a Facebook or Instagram account holds, in HTML or JSON. Each conversation is a folder under messages and inbox, with message_1.json or message_1.html and more files as it grows, beside its photos, videos and audio.
People download their messages to keep them when they leave Facebook or Instagram, and for evidence. The HTML is one long page per file, and the JSON writes every accented letter and emoji as two to four broken characters, so Chloé shows as Chloé.
Filepeek reads every conversation in the download, or the message files dropped together, into bubbles, each person in a color, with reactions, calls, unsent messages and the letters put right. Photos and videos open from the ZIP, Search counts every match, a date jumps to its day, Stats shows who wrote how much and when, and Export saves the chat as PDF, CSV or text.
Messenger and Instagram chat download
.json • .html • .zip
Format
- MIME type
- application/json
- Made by
- Meta's Download your information
Inside the file
- Each chat
- A folder of message files
- Format
- JSON or HTML
- Text
- UTF-8's bytes, each as a letter
- Written by
- Facebook and Instagram
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens Meta's message downloads in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, however many chats they hold. On their own, browsers show the JSON as code and the HTML a file at a time.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open Messenger
- WindowsNo app reads it back
- MacNo app reads it back
- iPhone and iPadNo app reads it back
- AndroidNo app reads it back
Questions
How do I download my Messenger chats?
In Facebook's or Instagram's Accounts Center, choose Your information and permissions, then Download your information, and pick Messages. JSON and HTML both open here.
Why do accents and emoji look broken in the JSON?
Meta writes each byte of a letter as a character of its own, so é becomes é. Filepeek puts the letters back as it reads the file.
Does it open Instagram's messages too?
Yes. Instagram's download keeps its chats the same way, under your_instagram_activity, and they open the same.
Can I see the photos?
Yes, when the ZIP is dropped whole. Each photo opens from its conversation's folder in it.