← Comparison hub · Export tools · Checked October 26, 2026

Decipher TextMessage: $29.99, one time, iPhone only

Decipher TextMessage is the tool a lot of family attorneys have recommended for years. The reason is simple: it does one honest job for one honest price.

If you're on iPhone and Apple Messages is your whole world, it may be all you need.

If it's not, read the second half of this post before you buy.

The facts, from its official site

Checked October 26, 2026:

• $29.99 USD, one time
• no subscription, no recurring fees
• updates included with the purchase
• 30-day money-back guarantee, with a troubleshoot-first condition: if you purchase and activate and have any issues, Decipher Tools first troubleshoots, and refunds if the issue cannot be fixed within the 30-day period.
• Free trial: it never expires, there's no payment, and it lets you save and print a few messages from each contact

If you need WhatsApp too, here's the fair total:

• Decipher TextMessage — $29.99 one-time
• Decipher Chat — $19.99 one-time
• Total: $49.98 — both one-time, no subscription
• Decipher Chat covers WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and Burner from iPhone backups, done locally on your computer

What it does:

• Saves and prints iMessage, SMS, RCS and MMS from iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch (and can import from the Mac Messages app).
• Exports to PDF, HTML, CSV or text, with the date, time and contact on every message.

Search — let's get this right

I'm not going to tell you Decipher has no search. It does.

Decipher's own knowledge base says it has robust search before you export:

• you can search for contacts, keywords and phone numbers
• you can search across all your messages, or narrow it to one conversation
• it's local keyword and contact search, in a desktop app, before export

Here's the honest distinction:

• Decipher: local keyword and contact search in a desktop app, before you export
• TextEvidence paid: whole-history search plus AI questions with citations and case reports, on top of a dated, line-numbered PDF
• Decipher has no AI questions with citations and no case reports found
• And a dated + line-numbered PDF isn't a stated Decipher feature

What it doesn't do is just as clear on its own pages:

• No Android phone export. That doesn't mean Android contacts are excluded. Decipher Tools' own support reply says it saves all the text messages on your iPhone from any contact, including conversations with Android users. So if your ex is on Android and you're on iPhone, those threads are in there.
• No WhatsApp in this app. WhatsApp needs the separate Decipher Chat program — $19.99 one-time, so $49.98 total if you need both. Decipher Chat covers WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber and Burner from iPhone backups, done locally on your computer.
• No official page describes line numbers in its PDFs, AI questions with citations, or case reports. So I've marked those as none found, rather than assumed.

What real users say — the good, the bad, and the ugly

Heads up on sourcing here, because it matters:

Ratings: Vendor-published 4.96/5 · 250 ratings / 386 reviews — vendor page only, NOT independent · Decipher Chat (separate): vendor 5.0/5 · 6 reviews · $19.99

That 4.96 figure lives only on Decipher's own site, and the 250 vs. 386 mismatch isn't explained there. I'm not presenting it as an independent score.

The good — vendor-hosted testimonials

About: Custody — screenshots saved “Decipher TextMessage has literally saved me hours/days of screenshotting texts for a custody battle. Thank you again!!!” Fallon — vendor-hosted, 5 stars, 8 Oct 2025. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials, page 2 (vendor-hosted)

About: Ease of use and support “Extremely easy to use product as well as fantastic customer service! The product I purchased didn't have a feature we needed for court and the customer service team responded promptly with a solution. We highly recommend there products!” Dustin — vendor-hosted, 5 stars, 17 Oct 2025. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials, page 2 (vendor-hosted)

About: Retrieving old messages “This program is fantastic! I was able to retrieve text messages from my Mom going back to 2017. She passed away in December so having these messages in a document that I can easily access and read when I want is really a wonderful gift. Also, the customer support is top-notch - they answered each of my questions quickly and thoroughly.” Jessica S. — vendor-hosted, 5 stars, 14 Aug 2025. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials, page 2 (vendor-hosted)

About: Decipher Chat (separate product) — WhatsApp export “Decipher Chat was exactly what I needed. I was able to export and print out almost 9 years worth of WhatsApp texts that I needed for a court case. Decipher Chat made it so much easier than I had originally expected. So kudos for providing such a valuable, user-friendly product.” Thomas M. — vendor-hosted, 5 stars, 6 Oct 2025. Decipher Chat is a separate product. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials, page 2 (vendor-hosted)

The bad — plainly, what's missing

No 1- or 2-star Decipher TextMessage review was found in this 2026-10-26 search of Trustpilot/Amazon/MacUpdate surfaces; the independent aggregates found were Amazon 3/5 and MacWorld 4/5 for earlier versions.

About: Program didn't work for his case — deleted messages not recoverable “While the program didn't work for my particular case unfortunatley. The customer service was extremely helpful with my problem, and gave me a full refund when it was clear that the was no solution to the problem. Highly recomended.” Clayton Desser — vendor-hosted, 7 May 2019 · star rating not shown in source — none assigned. Vendor reply: deleted text messages were no longer recoverable. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials, page 12 (vendor-hosted)

The mixed — still vendor-hosted

About: Clunky UI, strong support “I had been comparing several products to back-up texts, but what drove me to Decipher TextMessage was the pricing structure. But after installing and running the first backup, I ran into some issues and contacted support. They (Kelly!) were great - walked me through several scenarios until we got everything working right. The user interface itself a a little clunky, but once you back-up a couple of times, it seems intuitive enough.” Michael G. — vendor-hosted, 5 stars, 2 Sep 2026. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials (vendor-hosted)

About: Crash, proactive support, and FAQ “I bought this in 2023 when my ex took me to court over custody. With the need to save text messages as evidence, I knew endless screenshot would be difficult to keep in order and present. I spent $30 and still use it today to save our texts periodically. With the new edit feature, I fear my ex will go back and edit messages to make himself appear better in future court proceedings. I went to update/save my texts the other day and the program crashed. The next morning I had an email from the company telling me they saw my program crashed and how to fix the problem. I hadn't reported it. Great customer service if you do have issues. The only thing I'd critic is the FAQ page is extensive and appears repetitive.” Nancy — vendor-hosted, 5 stars, 12 Jul 2024. Source: Decipher Tools - testimonials, page 3 (vendor-hosted)

Why TextEvidence is better here

I'll be direct, because you're here to build the strongest record you can, fairly.

Decipher is clean and fairly priced, and it's iPhone-only for export — WhatsApp needs a separate $19.99 product, so $49.98 total if you need both, and there's no Android phone export.

• iPhone AND Android AND WhatsApp in one place. You don't need a second product for WhatsApp, and you can export from an Android phone itself, not just read iPhone threads with Android contacts.
• Dated AND line-numbered PDF. A dated + line-numbered PDF isn't a stated Decipher feature. Ours is built that way, so you can say “start at line 412.”
• Search, plus what Decipher doesn't add. Decipher gives you local keyword and contact search in its desktop app before export. On TextEvidence paid, you get whole-history search plus AI questions with citations your attorney can check, and case reports, on top of that dated, line-numbered PDF. Decipher has no AI questions with citations and no case reports found. Those TextEvidence features are paid, not in the Text-to-PDF Tool.
• Start free, literally nothing to lose. The Free Text-to-PDF Tool turns an iPhone backup, an Android SMS Backup & Restore (.xml), or a WhatsApp/chat export (.csv/.xml/.json/.txt) into a dated, line-numbered PDF, in your browser only. Messages never leave your device, nothing's saved on page close, free to 1,000 messages, no account needed. You pick a conversation thread, filter by conversation and date range, preview shows first 50 rows.

We're not a forensic unlock tool. We don't unlock phones or recover deleted messages. I'm not promising a court will accept any printout.

— Matt

Use the Free Text-to-PDF Tool — up to 1,000 messages

Related comparisons

• iMazing for messages
• TouchCopy
• Do you need Cellebrite?
• Back to the comparison hub
• Use the Free Text-to-PDF Tool first

The fit test

1. iPhone-only history, no WhatsApp in the case? Decipher is a clean, fair purchase and I won't talk you out of it.
2. Android phone messages, WhatsApp threads, or a record you need to search and ask questions about with citations to numbered lines? That's the shape TextEvidence is built for — starting free, in the browser, with nothing leaving your device.

Use the Free Text-to-PDF Tool — 1,000 messages, no account

Turn your iPhone, Android, or WhatsApp messages into a dated, line-numbered PDF — free up to 1,000 messages, in your browser, nothing saved, no account needed.

General information, not legal advice. We're not promising here that a court will accept any printout.

Sources: https://deciphertools.com/decipher-textmessage.html · https://deciphertools.com/decipher-chat.html · https://deciphertools.com/support/knowledge-base/reasons-why-decipher-text-message-is-used-to-print-texts-for-court/

By Matt Cretzman

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This article is general information, not legal advice. TextEvidence is software, not a law firm, and nothing here promises a court will accept any printout — that decision is always the court's. Prices change — confirm on the vendor's site before you buy anything, including ours.