Instagram chat guides

Stats Insta works with the official data export that Meta provides to every Instagram account. The export is powerful but not exactly friendly: it arrives as a ZIP archive full of folders and JSON files, and Instagram itself shows you almost none of the interesting patterns hidden inside it. These guides walk through the whole process in order, from requesting the download to interpreting your results.

Start here: get your data

• How to analyze an Instagram DM export — the complete walkthrough: request your messages from Accounts Center in JSON format, find the right files, and run your first analysis.
• Instagram export not working? Fixes for the most common problems — export still pending, downloaded in HTML instead of JSON, missing inbox folder, empty files, and other failures, explained one by one.
• How to open and read message_1.json files — what is actually inside Instagram's message files, what each field means, and why the text sometimes looks garbled.

Understand your results

• Instagram chat statistics explained — every metric Stats Insta calculates, what it really tells you, and how to read it without fooling yourself.
• Activity heatmaps: discover your peak texting hours — how the 7-by-24 activity heatmap is built, how to spot your conversation's rhythm, and who the real night owls are.
• Instagram group chat statistics — leaderboards, message share, conversation starters, and the difference between the members who drive a group chat and the ones who just react.

WhatsApp guides

• How to export a WhatsApp chat — the exact Android and iPhone steps, why "without media" is the right choice, where the file lands, and what to do with it.
• How to see WhatsApp chat statistics — what WhatsApp's storage screen hides, and how to get message counts per person, activity patterns, response times, and group leaderboards from a chat export.
• WhatsApp Chat Analyzer — the tool itself: drop in a chat export and get counts, heatmaps, media and deleted-message stats, and WhatsApp Wrapped cards, all in your browser.

Privacy and safety

• Are Instagram chat analyzers safe? — how in-browser processing keeps your messages on your device, how to verify it yourself, and the red flags that should make you close any analyzer tab immediately.
• Frequently asked questions — quick answers about file formats, mobile use, multiple conversations, and what the analyzer can and cannot see.

How the guides are written

Each guide is based on the current version of Meta's Accounts Center export flow and on the exact file format Meta delivers today. Menu names in the Instagram app change from time to time; when a step differs on your device, the guide notes what to look for instead. If you follow a guide and something does not match what you see, tell us through the contact page — corrections from readers are how these pages stay accurate.

One principle runs through every guide: your chat data is yours. Stats Insta reads the files you select inside your own browser and sends them nowhere. You never need your Instagram password to analyze an export, and any tool that asks for it is asking for something it does not need.