this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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ChatVault - store your whatsapp messages (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by NeoJackOfBlades@alien.top to c/main@selfhosted.forum
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I think this is a pretty niche demand and probably another topic for r/DataHoarder but anyway, here I am.

I created this application to basically have a way to store my WhatsApp messages away from the Google/Meta servers. Or at least not depend so much on Google backup.

Whatsapp has a very limited export functionality, which any user can use through the app's own interface. Once these messages and media have been exported, you can place them in a folder monitored by ChatVault, send them to an email monitored by ChatVault or upload them via the interface. Once ingested by chatvault, it will record the chat media on disk and save the messages in a database in a structured way. These messages can be accessed in a front end similar to a chat application.

It's still under development, some things need to be improved (mainly the UI), it's still far from ideal, it's true, the way Whatsapp allows us to export messages is quite bad, which makes the entire process of exporting and ingesting it into chatvault quite coupled but it can still be useful for those who want to store their messages independently, just like I wanted.

https://github.com/vitormarcal/chatvault

Edit: add an application interface image

The UI still needs some work, but it serves the purpose

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[–] AKDub1@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

This is great! I will definitely try this out when I get the chance and follow development.

For the last year or so I had been thinking of a similar thing and planning to write a post on r/datahoarder about it, but decided not to because as someone who knows nothing about software development I would be basically just asking people to create an app I want for free.

Here are some random thoughts I had had for that app:

Import from multiple sources WhatsApp/Signal/Telegram/etc - either from databases,backups, exports, or just parsing text files for if you are able to compose a chat history in any other way. Optional chat merge - merge chats from different sources into a single chat history instead of into a separate chat isothere
Address book/Contact - so that you can manage things clearly when merging