How to print text messages for court from an iPhone

You have three realistic options. Which one fits depends on how many messages you have and whether you have a computer.

Option 1: Screenshots, organised into a transcript (most people)

Open the conversation in Messages and scroll to the oldest message you need.
Drag any bubble to the left and hold to reveal the exact time next to every message, then take the screenshot while the times are showing. Times matter to judges.
Take a screenshot (side button + volume up). Scroll so the last bubble of the previous screenshot is still visible at the top, then screenshot again. Repeat to the newest message. Overlap is good: it proves nothing was skipped.
Do not crop, mark up or edit the images. Keep the originals.
Upload the screenshots to Court Texts. It reads each bubble, removes the overlap, orders the messages by date and time, and builds a PDF with a numbered transcript and every screenshot attached as an exhibit.

Why not just print the screenshots? You can, and for five or ten messages that is fine. For a longer thread, a judge is looking at dozens of unnumbered images with no way to reference "the message where he said X". A transcript with exhibit references fixes that and takes minutes.

Option 2: Print to PDF from the Mac Messages app

If your Messages sync to a Mac, open the conversation, choose File › Print, and save as PDF. This is free but produces long pages with no message numbering, and it only works if iCloud Messages syncing is turned on.

Option 3: A backup-based export tool

Desktop programs such as Decipher TextMessage read an iPhone backup and export a full conversation with contact names and phone numbers on every message. This is the most complete option and the best one if the other side may argue the messages were altered, because it comes from the device database rather than from images. It costs about $30, needs a Mac or Windows computer and an iPhone backup, and takes an hour or two to set up.

How to present the messages

Put messages in chronological order and number them.
Show who sent each message, with the date and time.
Attach the original screenshots so any line can be checked.
Add a short statement of how the document was prepared and by whom.
Be ready to testify that you took the screenshots from your phone and did not alter them. That is normally what authenticates them.

Turn your screenshots into a transcript PDF for court →