Kept Chats

Guides

Open a Skype export on a phone

If the export is on your phone, you can read it there. Open this page in Safari or Chrome and choose the .tar file. Nothing is uploaded.

Updated 2 November 2026

On an iPhone or iPad

  1. Open this page in Safari.
  2. Tap Choose your export, then Browse or Choose File.
  3. Find the .tar in the Files app, usually in Downloads on iCloud Drive or On My iPhone, and tap it.

On Android

  1. Open this page in Chrome.
  2. Tap Choose your export and pick the .tar from Downloads.

The conversation list fills the screen; tap one to read it, and use the back arrow to return to the list. Search works across all conversations, just as on a computer.

When a computer is easier

  • Very large exports. Phones give a web page less memory than a computer does. Tens of thousands of messages are fine; an export with millions may be too much for a phone.
  • The files export. If Skype gave you two downloads, both need to be on the same device.
  • Saving a copy. A PDF or web page copy of a long conversation is easier to save and keep on a computer.

Getting the file onto the phone

If the export is on a computer, you can put it in iCloud Drive, Google Drive or OneDrive and open it from there on the phone. That copies the file through that storage service, so only do it with a service you already trust with your files. Kept Chats itself never receives the file.