Do you ever feel like going back to your old messages and reading them? And here, I’m not referring to the entire conversation from the beginning to the present, but some sweet part of it. Or maybe some part that you don’t remember well but need to? Well, if you know how to search Instagram messages by date, you can make this possible.
And yes, it’s true that Instagram doesn’t provide users with a direct feature to do that, but a few possible workarounds can make it possible. If you want to know what those are, keep scrolling!
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Here’s How To Search Instagram Messages By Date Using Two Different Ways!
As mentioned above, there are workarounds you can try to search for Instagram messages by date. For example, you can download your Instagram data by setting a particular date range. After all, Instagram allows users to download a copy of their data. In fact, the process has now become even simpler and faster.
If you can’t remember the exact date, you can look for your messages using keywords or phrases that you may remember from that date range.
Now, if you want to know how to search Instagram messages by date using both of these methods in detail, make sure not to skip a single section of this article.
How To Search Instagram Messages By Date Using The Data Download Option?
You can search Instagram messages by date by downloading a copy of your data from that time frame. Downloading data used to be a pretty complicated process earlier, but it has now become simpler and faster. So, if you want to search for your Instagram messages this way, follow these steps:
- Launch the Instagram app on your device.
- Navigate to the profile section of your account by tapping on the profile icon located at the bottom right corner of your screen.
- When your profile page opens, tap on the three-line icon located at the top right corner of your screen.
- A menu will then open on the screen. Choose the “Your Activity” option from it.
- When the Your Activity page opens, scroll down to the bottom of it.
- There, you will find the “Download your information” option. Tap on it.
- From the next screen, tap on the “Request a download” option.
- If you’ve got multiple Instagram accounts, select the one you would like to download the data for.
- After you’ve selected, tap on “Next” at the bottom of the screen.
- Now, the “Select information” page will open on your screen. You can either choose “Complete copy” if you want to have everything downloaded or choose “Select types of information”
- Here, since you only want to go through your messages from a specific time range, tap on the “Select types of information” option.
- Scroll through the list of Information types and select “Messages.”
- Once selected, tap on the “Next” option in blue, located at the bottom of the screen.
- Now, to choose what email address you want to receive a copy of your data on, tap on “Notify”. Then, select the email address from the next screen.
- Then, choose the Format that you want your data to be in. You can choose either HTML or JSON.
- HTML will be selected by default. Using this format, you can easily see your data on your computer.
- If you will want to be able to import your data into another site, choose JSON.
- Now, you can choose the media quality of the images and videos you want in your file. However, remember that your chosen quality can affect your download size.
- You get to choose between High, Medium, and Low quality. Data of High quality will require a longer period of time to download. Medium is selected by default.
- Lastly, you need to select the date range you want the copy of your data to belong to. You have several options: Last week, Last month, Last 3 months, Last 6 months, Last year (selected by default), Last three years, All time (can take a long while to download). You can also choose a custom date.
- To choose a custom date, tap on the “Edit” option present next to Custom.
- Then, set a custom date range. Tap on Start date to select a date you wish the data download to start.
- Next, tap on the End date.
- The messages that you download will belong to this time frame.
- After you’ve selected the time frame, tap on “Save”, located at the bottom in blue.
- Then, tap on the “Submit Request” option.
And, done! Instagram will take some time to process your request and make a copy of your data available. Once it is ready, they will notify you of the same by mail. You will be able to download your data from the same “Download your information” page. However, for some security reasons, you will only be able to do so 4 days after the copy is available.
How To Search Instagram Messages By Date Using Keywords?
If you remember some specific keywords or phrases from a conversation in a particular date range, then you can use those to search for your Instagram messages. Here’s how this can be done:
- Launch the Instagram app on your device.
- After that, tap on the Messenger icon located at the top right corner of the screen.
- From the list of DMs, tap on the chat you wish to search messages in.
- Once the chat opens, tap on the username of the person at the top left of the screen.
- When the chat settings page opens, tap on the search icon located below their username.
- Then, tap in the search bar that appears at the top of the page and enter the keyword or phrase.
- Press enter, and within a second the conversation containing that keyword will appear on the screen.
And, that’s it!
Final Words
Okey-dokey, people! That was it for today’s article, I hope you guys have understood how to search Instagram messages by date using two different methods. You can search for some messages you want by downloading your data or using particular keywords or phrases that you may remember from the conversation that day. So, use whichever method will suit your requirement the best. Alright then, have fun reading your old chats!
