Practical Mobile Forensics - Fourth Edition

Chat applications

Chat applications are among the most common applications on the market. These applications provide users with the ability to chat or call outside the standard services offered by the network service provider. These apps may often be more secure compared to other apps. By secure, we mean that the apps may offer encryption, private profiles, private group chats, and more. Additionally, these apps enable the user to message or call others without the need for a data plan, as Wi-Fi provides all of the access that they need. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Tango, and Snapchat are some of the more popular applications.

Parsing artifacts from chat applications is not always simple. Often, multiple tools and methods will be ...