The easiest way to print text messages from Android is to take screenshots of the messages, place them on a blank document and print it. There are also third-party apps for creating text transcripts, which you can then print.
Text messages pretty much only live on your Android phone. However, there may come a time – whether it’s for a lawsuit or personal data – when you want a physical copy. Printing a text conversation isn’t as easy as it sounds, but we’ll walk you through it.
Print screenshots of Android text messages
To maintain a sense of authenticity and avoid any sort of backup or transfer tool, it’s best to take screenshots and print them. It’s a bit clunky, but it works.
First, open the text conversation and navigate to the beginning of the section you want to print. To take screenshots on an Android device, press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for a second.
An even better option for taking screenshots of a text conversation is “scrolling screenshots.” This captures more of the screen than you can see, resulting in fewer screenshots. Most Android devices allow you to take scrolling screenshots. Here are instructions on how to take screenshots on Samsung Galaxy devices.
Remark: Keep in mind that you want the screenshots to be easy to read. Scrolling screenshots can get very long, making the text small when crammed onto a single page of paper. Crop the screenshots (take care when cropping if you need screenshots for legal purposes) or spread them across multiple pages.
Once you’re done with the screenshots, let’s add the screenshots to a word processing program. We’ll be using Google Docs for Android in this guide, but you might as well use Microsoft Word. Insert the screenshots into a blank document to get started.
You can resize the screenshots to fit more than one on a page and adjust readability.
Once you’ve embedded the screenshots, tap the three-dot menu icon in the top-right corner and select “Share & Export.” Look for a share button in the app you want to use.
Select “Print”.
Android’s built-in print dialog appears. You can print to a printer connected to the same Wi-Fi network, or “Save as PDF” and transfer the PDF to a computer connected to a printer.
You can also adjust the paper size, color and orientation by expanding the menu.
Tap the printer icon or “PDF” button when you’re done!
This is certainly not the most elegant solution, but if you just need a quick and dirty way to get text messages on a piece of paper, this will do.
Print an Android text message transcript
If printing screenshots isn’t a viable option, there are also apps that can create transcripts for printing. However, this may not be an accepted method if you need a call record for legal purposes. (Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and we recommend that you contact an attorney for legal advice.)
We use an app called “SMS Backup & Restore”. It is a free app with over 10 million downloads and a 4 star rating. Open the app and give it permission to access your call logs, contacts, and text messages.
Next, we need to backup your text messages. This is what creates the transcript that we can print. Tap the “Set up a backup” button.
Make sure “Messages” is selected, then tap “Advanced Options.”
In the advanced options, select “Only Selected Conversations” and tap “Change” to select specific conversations that you want to back up. You may want to enable “Attachments and Media” here as well.
Tap “Next” at the bottom of the screen to continue.
Choose where you want to save the backup and tap “Next” again.
Uncheck “Schedule recurring backups” and tap “Back up now”.
Once the backup is complete, open the hamburger menu button at the top left and select “View backups.”
Open the backup you just made.
Tap the three-dot menu icon for the conversation you want to print.
Finally, select “Print Conversation” from the menu.
Android’s built-in print dialog appears and you see a preview of the conversation in a spreadsheet format. You can print to a printer connected to the same Wi-Fi network, or “Save as PDF” and transfer the PDF to a computer connected to a printer.
You can also adjust the paper size, color and orientation by expanding the menu.
Tap the printer icon or “PDF” button when you’re done!
This method has a much cleaner result, but also seems easier to edit, if that’s something to consider.
Unfortunately, there isn’t really a simple built-in method to print text messages. However, it is strangely easier to transfer text messages from iPhone to Android device. If you need to retrieve deleted text messages on your Android device, there are options for that too.