Shotnest · Library
Preserve context in a saved message exchange
Text message, Last seen today and WhatsApp give the sample chat 6 points for the Chats shelf; the reply line alone scores 1 and lands in Everything else.
What makes a screenshot look like a chat
The Chats shelf has two kinds of evidence. Interface phrases such as Text message, Last seen and WhatsApp add two points each, so the sample reaches 6. A structural rule adds two more points when a screenshot has at least three clock times and more than 60 percent of its lines are shorter than 48 characters, the typical shape of a message thread.
The sample has only one time, 09:15, so the structural rule does not fire and the 6 points come from the phrases. The reply on its own, See you at the library, contains no marker and has no prose shape; it scores 1 and is filed under Everything else.
In the detail view, dates and phone numbers in the recognised text are found on the iPhone by Apple's data detectors and listed under the screenshot, which makes a meeting time or a number in a chat easy to use.
Original harmless example
- Text
- Text message Last seen today WhatsApp 09:15 See you at the library.
- Expected suggested shelf
- Messages
Capture a conversation others can follow
- Include the contact or group name at the top so the speaker is clear later.
- Keep the message that a reply answers in the same screenshot.
- Before sharing, cover phone numbers and names that the recipient does not need, using a copy.
- Search a word from the reply in Shotnest; the matching line is highlighted on the image.
- Four lines with 09:15, 09:16, 09:20 and 09:41
- Chats · 2, not confident
- See you at the library alone
- Everything else, score 1
Context that gets lost
- A cropped bubble without the header loses both the speaker and the chat-app phrases that place it on the shelf.
- Times alone give only 2 points, below the confident level, so a thread with no app phrases may be passed to Apple's model or misfiled.
- Detected phone numbers in the detail view come from the text, which may include other people's contact details.
- Deleting the screenshot after copying the reply; Copy text keeps the words but not who sent them.
Filing is not attribution
The sample is invented. A Chats shelf says the text looks like a conversation; it does not confirm who wrote it or whether they agreed to its being shared.