Comparison

Message Recovery vs ChatViewer

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Message Recovery

Regularly back up your SMS and popular messaging app conversations to restore them anytime. Keep your chats safe and organized, ensuring important messages are always accessible. Offers secure data protection with encryption and local storage.

Highlights
  • Robust backup and restore for SMS and chat messages
  • User-friendly interface for easy navigation
  • Secure data protection with on-device encryption
  • Fast message sending without adding contacts
  • Regularly updated with new features
Read full description

Warbi turns the chats you export from your messaging app into archives you can read, search and keep on your iPhone. It also comes with 15 everyday tools for messages, text and photos. Your chats, kept as archives • Export a chat from your messaging app as a .zip or .txt file and open it in Warbi, or send it to Warbi from the share sheet. • Photos, videos, voice notes and files from the export stay next to their messages. • No export? Pick screenshots of a chat, and Warbi reads the messages from them on your iPhone. • Search every message, browse photos, videos, voice notes, files and links in one place, and jump to any date. Your chat recap • See a chat's story in a few cards: your favorite hour, who wrote more, your longest streak and your most used words. • Share a summary card of a chat with friends. Premium • Unlimited archives. • The full recap and detailed stats: messages by hour and weekday, a year calendar, records and favorites. • The links, phone numbers, addresses and dates mentioned in a chat, ready to open. • Voice note transcripts you can search. They're made on your iPhone when your language allows it. • Export a chat as a PDF, as bubbles or a plain transcript, with or without photos and phone numbers. • Recovery Mode: an archive you delete in Warbi waits 7 days in Recently Deleted, so you can put it back. It covers Warbi's own archives only and can't bring back messages deleted in other apps. Everyday tools • Quick Send: open a chat with a number without saving it to your contacts. • Chat link and QR code that open a chat with you. • Number fixer: turns any number into international format. • Reminders to message someone at the right time. • Text formatter for bold, italic, strikethrough and monospace. • Fancy text, kaomoji and symbols, and an emoji finder. • Text repeater, and text to speech you can listen to or share as audio. • Voice note converter: turns .opus voice notes into M4A or WAV files that play anywhere. • Screenshot stitcher, no-crop profile photo, photo and video compressor, and screenshot blur to hide names and faces before you share. Private by design • Your archives are stored on your iPhone. Warbi has no account and no servers of its own. • Warbi can't open your messaging app, its backups or anything you haven't exported. It only works with the files and screenshots you choose. About Warbi Premium Warbi Premium is a monthly auto-renewing subscription. Eligible new subscribers start with a 3-day trial. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase, or when the trial ends. The subscription renews automatically unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel it anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://warbi.serpinty.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://warbi.serpinty.com/privacy Warbi is an independent app and isn't affiliated with any messaging service.

About

ChatViewer

Features
Read full description

ChatViewer lets you open and explore your WhatsApp chat backups directly on your device. View messages and media offline with a clean, fast, and secure experience. Designed as a simple utility, ChatViewer helps you browse your exported WhatsApp chats and media files without uploading your data anywhere. Features: • View WhatsApp chat backups locally • Browse messages and media offline • Clean and fast chat navigation • No accounts, no servers, no tracking • Privacy-first, on-device processing ChatViewer does not collect or store your data. All files stay on your device. This app is not affiliated with or endorsed by WhatsApp.

Screenshots

Message Recovery4 screens
ChatViewer3 screens

Verdict

The call

Message Recovery and ChatViewer are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Message Recovery sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and ChatViewer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Message Recovery versus ChatViewer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMessage RecoveryChatViewer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (1.4K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews36.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.4K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSerpintyBugra Acemoglu

Bugs and requests

Message Recovery

Reported bugs

1 issue
  • No response from support team

Requested features

1 request
  • Support for Messenger on iOS

ChatViewer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Message Recovery

Subscriptions8
  • Unlimited Backup - Monthly3 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Weekly Pro Plan$4.997 Days
  • Weekly3 Days trial$4.997 Days
Show 5 more
  • Weekly - Recovery Messages$5.997 Days
  • Monthly Promotion$8.991 Month
  • WMR - Monthly$8.991 Month
  • Annual$9.991 Year
  • Monthly$9.991 Month
1 purchases

ChatViewer

One-time1
  • Full Access – Unlimited Chats$4.99

Questions

Is Message Recovery free?
Message Recovery is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ChatViewer free?
ChatViewer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Message Recovery or ChatViewer have ads?
Neither Message Recovery nor ChatViewer shows ads.

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