Guide
How to view your old Snapchat chats by person on iPhone
To see your old Snapchat chats by person, request your data from Snapchat's My Data page, download the ZIP it emails you, and open it in a viewer that rebuilds conversations from the export's JSON files. Snapchat's own index.html lists your data, but the saved photos and videos sit in one folder with names like 2021-02-18_b~EiQS….jpg, cut off from the messages they belonged to. Lidly reads the export on your iPhone and puts each saved snap back in the conversation it came from, in order, with who sent it.
What old chats can you actually get back?
Only what was saved. Snapchat's export reflects the messages and media that you or the other person kept in the chat. Chats that disappeared the normal way are not in it, and your export cannot bring back something Snapchat no longer has. Third-party guides such as Redact's walkthrough say the same: the chat history file covers saved messages only.
In practice that still adds up to a lot. Anyone who saved snaps in a chat over a few years usually has hundreds or thousands of them in chat_media/, and those are the ones people most want to look back through.
Step 1: request your export
Steps checked October 2026, against Snapchat's help page:
- Sign in at accounts.snapchat.com, or in the app open Settings, then My Data.
- Choose the data you want. For chats, include your saved chat history and the chat media. Lidly also reads the export's JSON files, so if you are offered JSON, include it.
- Pick a date range, or turn the range off to get everything.
- Confirm your email address and tap Submit.
Snapchat says it aims to deliver within seven days and that large requests can take longer. For more on choosing what to include, see which Snapchat data toggles to choose.
Step 2: download the ZIP to your iPhone
When the email arrives, download the file in Safari and save it to the Files app. On My iPhone, then Downloads is the easiest place to find it later. A big account often arrives as several ZIP files; download all of them. Multi-part exports explains what the parts are.
Step 3: open it in Lidly
Open Lidly, choose to import, and pick the ZIP, or all of the parts at once. There is no unzipping and no computer involved. Lidly reads the archive where it already is rather than copying it, so even a very large export needs almost no extra space. Keep the files where they are afterwards: if you move or delete them, the app asks you to point it at them again.
How Lidly works out who sent each snap
The media files in chat_media/ carry no sender. The connection lives in the JSON files next to them. In json/chat_history.json, each saved message records who it was from, when it was sent, which conversation it belongs to and, for media, an ID. Lidly matches each file to the message that references it, then threads the results per conversation, oldest to newest.
When the export doesn't give enough evidence to place a file confidently, Lidly doesn't guess. Those files go to a separate Unsorted view, ordered by date, so nothing is lost and nothing is put in the wrong chat. How many land there depends on your export, and we would rather show them by date than guess.
What a conversation looks like
- Each person, or group, gets one conversation, labelled with how long ago you last spoke.
- Inside, saved snaps and saved messages appear in the order they were sent, with a name on each one, including yours.
- Open any snap full screen. Tap to move to the next one, hold to pause, the way you're used to.
- Captions and drawings appear on the photo or video, the way they looked when they were sent. Why export photos lose their captions explains why that takes work.
Can you save them back to your camera roll?
Yes. Any snap can be saved to Photos with its original date, so it lands at the right point in your library rather than at the top. Photos keep their caption on the saved image. For videos, the caption shows in the app but is not burned into the saved file. Restoring date and location covers the details.
What it costs
Importing and reading your conversations is free. The most recent twelve months of media are free to view, counted back from the newest item in your export, and your first ten saves to your camera roll are free. A single one-time purchase unlocks the rest of the archive and unlimited saving. There is no subscription and no account.
Is it private?
Lidly has no login and never asks for your Snapchat password. It makes no network requests at all, so your conversations never leave your phone, and its App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected". See /privacy for the full policy, and are Snapchat memories downloaders safe? for what to check in any tool.
Common questions
Does this work with an export I downloaded years ago?
Usually, as long as it includes the JSON files. Older exports used slightly different file names, and Lidly handles the naming schemes we have seen. If something can't be placed, it goes to Unsorted.
Can it show chats I never saved?
No. If a chat wasn't saved, Snapchat's export doesn't contain it, and no app can recover it from the export.
Do I need a Mac or PC?
No. Everything happens on the iPhone. If you'd rather use a computer, the roundup of ways to view your export covers desktop options too.