signal2html: Convert Signal backups to pretty HTML

This is a Python script to convert a backup of Signal messages to pretty HTML:

Why?

My phone's memory was getting full and I wanted to preserve my Signal messages in a nice way.

How?

1. Install this package using pip:

   $ pip install signal2html
   

2. Next, clone and compile signalbackup-tools as follows:

   $ git clone https://github.com/bepaald/signalbackup-tools
   $ cd signalbackup-tools
   $ bash BUILDSCRIPT.sh
   

   This should give you a signalbackup-tools executable script.

3. Create an encrypted backup of your Signal messages in the app (Settings -> Chats and Media -> Create backup), and transfer this to your computer. Make sure to record the encryption password.

4. Unpack your encrypted backup using signalbackup-tools as follows:

   $ mkdir signal-backup/
   $ signalbackup-tools --output signal_backup/ signal-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.backup <PASS>
   

   where you replace signal-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-SS.backup with the actual filename of your Signal backup and <PASS> with the 30-digit encryption password (without spaces).

5. Now, run signal2html on the backup directory, as follows:

   $ signal2html -i signal_backup/ -o signal_html/
   

   This will create a HTML page for each of the message threads in the signal_html directory, which you can subsequently open in your browser.

Notes

This is a hastily-written script that has only been tested on my backup. I hope it works on other backups as well, but if you encounter any issues please submit a patch.

See the LICENSE file for licensing details and copyright.

Author: Gertjan van den Burg.