GroupMe Archiver

Archive/Backup and Render GroupMe chats as JSON and HTML! GroupMe provides an awesome dev API that lets you pull messages/attachments from their servers, and these scripts makes use of them. The archive_chat.py script allows you to list existing group/direct messages, and then fetch all information for any given group/direct message chat. All information is saved as json files, while the attachments and avatars are stored in their original format.

Features

• Supports Group chats as well as Direct Message chats
• Rendering matches the mobile app interface to a high degree for a familiar experience
• Support for user avatars, favorited by lists and mentions
• Support for image, linked images and video attachment types

Installation

All of the scripts are written using Python3, so you'll need it to run them. For setting up the dependencies, simple run:

conda env create -f conda-environment.yml
source activate groupme-archiver

If you do not have conda and want to go the manual route, you'll need to pip install the following dependencies: pytz, requests, tabulate, tqdm and yattag

You will also need a token from GroupMe through which the scripts will access your data. You can get this token after you log in to https://dev.groupme.com (using your normal GroupMe credentials). The token is accessible by clicking Access token in the header.

Fetching your chats

Once you have everything setup and the access token in hand, just run

python archive_chat.py -t <access-token-here>

You existing groups and direct messages will be listed, along with their ID's. Find your chat of interest and note its ID down.

Group Chat

For group chats, run

python archive_chat.py -t <access-token-here> -g <group-id-here>

Direct Messages

For direct message chats, run

python archive_chat.py -t <access-token-here> -d <direct-chat-id-here>

Once you run one of the above commands, you will have a folder with the same name as the group (or the person in a direct chat). It will contain all of the information from the chat; the messages, avatars and attachments.

Rendering your chats

You can either use the archived data in its raw JSON form, or you can render the entire chat as a nice HTML.

python render_chat.py -i <folder-name-here>

A rendered.html file will be created in the same folder, which you can open in any browser to see a nicely formatted chat!

More Options

The archive_chat.py has a few more options (use the -h flag to see them all):

• --num-messages-per-request, -n: Number of messages per request. The default is 20 as in the GroupMe API, but can be set to a value as big as 100 for faster message fetching. Consider setting this value if your chat has a lot of messages.
• --output-dir, -o: Custom output folder - if you don't want the output to be saved in the predefined folder of the group/person name.
• --save-global-avatars: GroupMe allows you to set chat specific avatars/profile pics (and also change your avatar mid-chat). This option would use the global avatar for each user, instead of the latest avatar set within the chat of interest.

The render_chat.py has an extra option:

• --timezone: The timestamps can be adjusted by providing an entry from the Olsen database, for e.g. America/Los_Angeles

TODO/Wishlist

• Archiving: Resumable archiving (Partially done for attachments)
• Archiving: Multiple avatars per user within the same chat
• Archiving: Better error handling for mismatched ID's and failed API requests
• Render: Support for custom GroupMe emoji packs
• Render: Support for multiple image/video attachments per message

Feel free to open an issue with any bugs you encounter!