Dates and times

Wherever dates and times appear in a message collection, Text Collector uses the time zone adjustment and the conventions for formatting that match the phone settings.

In Britain, for example, dates will be formatted differently than in America, and reflect a different time zone. The universal time does not change, so if Alice, in Seattle, sends a message just after noon her time, to Bob, in London, the message will look a little different in their respective collections:

Alice

12:05 PM

Bob

8:05 PM

Date preference

The date and time reflected on a message is normally when it was received, for incoming, and sent, for outgoing. For multimedia messages (MMS), if the phone was not set to download content, such as pictures automatically, the time reflects when the message was downloaded: roughly speaking, when the recipient viewed it.

Date filtering

You can optionally choose a date range when starting a collection. The date range cannot change after starting the collection; if you want a different date range, create a new collection.

The date filter is inclusive on both ends, starting at midnight, local time. So, for example, a collection from January 1, 2017 to January 31, 2017 includes messages from January 1 and January 31.

Time zones

Text Collector has no way of knowing if you moved during the time frame you are collecting, so messages from when you were living elsewhere will be displayed as if they were in your current time zone. For example:

  1. At noon, her time, Alice sends a message to Bob (she lives in Seattle)

  2. Alice moves to New York (3 hour time difference)

If Alice collects her messages in New York, it will look as if it was 3 PM, her time.

When exported, collections include an information document that shows the collection time zone. The collection time zone does not change after the collection is complete, so if Alice goes back to Seattle, the collection she did in New York will still reflect New York time.

Some old Android versions did not calculate time zones correctly, on certain carriers, but this should not be a problem on any phones supported by Text Collector. If you notice a time discrepency, please send an email to help@legaltextcollector.com.