Google Chat Takeout Reader

Introduction

This repo contains a simple, client-side reader for Google Chat Takeout JSON files.

This is a pure javascript utility. Nothing is uploaded to the internet. It all runs on your local machine.

How to use the Google Chat Takeout Reader

Step 1

Download and unzip Google Chat files from Google Takeout at https://takeout.google.com/.

Step 2

Use the Google Chat Takeout Reader to view them.

You can use the hosted version of this utility by clicking here: https://mrwoof.github.io/google-chat-takeout-reader/google_chat_takeout_reader.html

- OR -

If you'd prefer to download the utility and load it into your browser locally, do the following:

• Download the file google_chat_takeout_reader.html
• Open that file in Google Chrome
• Select the directory containing your uncompressed Google Chat Takeout files (this won't work on .zip or .tgz files -- you need to unzip them first)
• Grant permission for your browser to view the files on the file system
• See your chats

That's it!

Technical Notes

• To my knowledge, this code only works with Google Chrome due to its use of window.showDirectoryPicker() -- not all browsers support directory selection.
• This code was only tested on MacOS.
• Uses Bootstrap 5.3.0 and jquery 3.6.0, sourced from public URLs

Acknowledgements

Shout out to the project Hangouts Reader at https://github.com/Jessecar96/hangouts-reader/.

I was going to contribute enhancements to that project, but Google changed the JSON structure of Takeout files when they transitioned from Hangouts to Google Chat, I wrote a new reader from scratch which is what is contained in this repo.

PRs welcome

Though I can't promise quick turnaround on reviews...

Enjoy!

-- Michael Richman