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iPhone Discovery of Messages, WhatsApp, and More Made Easy
July 16, 2020
Today's TechnoLawyer Buyer's Guide report covers dual purpose Mac and Windows software that you can use in a litigation context to defensibly collect messages and other data from iPhones, and which you can use in a personal context to create encrypted backups of your own iPhone.
iPhone Discovery of Messages, WhatsApp, and More Made Easy and Inexpensive
Texas lawyer Ed Walsh started practicing law in the 1970s and has spent most of it handling family law disputes. For most of his career, he had to rely on imperfect and inaccurate testimony in depositions about past conversations and events. But thanks to the smartphone era, he now has access to text messages, photos, and other invaluable evidence. He only needed to find an inexpensive way to collect this data.
iMazing in One Sentence
DigiDNA's iMazing is dual purpose Mac and Windows software that you can use in a litigation context to defensibly collect messages and other data from iPhones, and which you can use in a personal context to create encrypted backups of your own iPhone.
The Killer Feature
iMazing focuses on Apple Messages and WhatsApp because these services are tied to an iPhone number, which makes them inaccessible from a website unlike other chat services.
"We've consulted with lawyers in the U.S., U.K. and Australia to determine which key pieces of information should be included in PDFs and printouts of Messages and WhatsApp chats on iPhones to maximize their authenticity and impact in court," says CEO Gregorio Zanon. "The result? A complete overhaul of iMazing's Messages and WhatsApp export tools, which now offer industry-leading quality in an approachable and affordable package."
As Zanon intimates, the collection process is straightforward thanks to iMazing's email-like user experience. Start by plugging an iPhone into a computer and iMazing displays the available data types in the left column. Select Messages or WhatsApp and the middle column displays all the conversations. Select a conversation and the right column displays the messages. iMazing offers keyword searching of conversations. The search results shows the context, which you can expand to include all the messages of interest.
You can export an entire conversation or just the relevant portion in PDF, text, Excel, or CSV format. You can also print conversations. Settings enable you to include the iPhone serial number and other metadata for authentication. Exports also contain the original date and time stamps for each message as well as the full contact information of each participant, which judges often want to see. iMazing keeps all emoji intact and includes any attachments such as documents and photos.
"We use iMazing in our family law cases dealing with divorce and custody issues," says Walsh. "It has proven extremely beneficial in preparing accurately dated text messages to use as evidence in court."
iMazing defensibly captures Apple Messages and WhatsApp chats from iPhones.
Other Notable Features
iMazing also exports an iPhone's Call History, Calendars, Contacts, Photos, Notes, Safari Bookmarks and History, Voicemail, and Voice Memos.
The photos export tool received an overhaul similar to that for messages given their importance in litigation. Photo exports can include hidden assets such as the video from a live photo, peripheral imagery outside of the frame that the iPhone captures but hides, and the version of the photo prior to portrait background blurring and other effects.
iMazing is also useful personally. You can use the Call History from your own iPhone for billing purposes. Sort calls by date, contact name, or service (cellular, Facetime, VoIP app, etc.). iMazing enables you to create local, encrypted backups of your iPhone. Options include automated backups on a regular schedule, versioning so that you can restore to a point in time, and creation of a clean archive for upgrading to a new iPhone.
What Else Should You Know?
Most ediscovery software requires an expensive monthly subscription. By contrast, iMazing costs just $44.95 for a license that includes unlimited technical support.
Neil J. Squillante is the founder and publisher of TechnoLawyer, an award-winning network of free email newsletters for lawyers and law office administrators. Many consider TechnoLawyer newsletters the only ones they need. A Fastcase 50 award winner, Neil has a long track record of inventing successful advertising and publishing technologies and related best practices. Previously, Neil practiced commercial litigation at Am Law 100 firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law and his B.A. from Duke University. At UCLA, Neil served as a Managing Editor of UCLA Law Review.
