# Does iChat have a "history" feature?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 10, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269 "2007-07-10T22:16:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269/1 "2007-07-10T22:16:20Z")
Can I find a previous iChat conversation? What if I said something nasty about a co-worker. Can someone access my iChat and find that I said that thing, if I did indeed say it? Which I may have? But of course I’m speaking hypothetically.
:eek:
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### Author:  [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2007, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269/2 "2007-07-10T22:46:14Z")
I’m not at my Mac at the moment, but yes, I’m pretty sure iChat has logs. Whether they’re turned on for you or not depends on the preferences settings, you can look there to see.
Unfortunately, for you to be hypothetically in the clear, BOTH your iChat and the IM program of the person you were chatting with would have to have logs turned off, and many IM apps have them on by default. (The logs record both sides of the conversations).
…and I’m assuming you’re talking text-messaging conversations. I doubt that iChat or any other IM app is logging video; it would just be too expensive.
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269/3 "2007-07-10T22:56:36Z")
[QUOTE=xanthous]
Can I find a previous iChat conversation? What if I said something nasty about a co-worker. Can someone access my iChat and find that I said that thing, if I did indeed say it? Which I may have? But of course I’m speaking hypothetically.
:eek:
[/QUOTE]
and even if you delete it, alot of PC techs can still get it back. I have done several of these now with chat logs and had some eye opening results.
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### Author:  [@xanthous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xanthous)
#### Post date: [July 10, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269/4 "2007-07-10T23:02:26Z")
[QUOTE=drachillix]
and even if you delete it, alot of PC techs can still get it back. I have done several of these now with chat logs and had some eye opening results.
[/QUOTE]
But it’s not like said person (who is not a tech in any sense of the word) can get on my computer when I’m not at work and call it up lickety split? They’d have to do some deep digging, no?
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### Author:  [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269/5 "2007-07-11T03:33:54Z")
[QUOTE=xanthous]
But it’s not like said person (who is not a tech in any sense of the word) can get on my computer when I’m not at work and call it up lickety split? They’d have to do some deep digging, no?
[/QUOTE]
Give him an hour and the proper piece of $49 software he can pull them. Done it before.
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2007, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-ichat-have-a-history-feature/411269/6 "2007-07-11T04:22:03Z")
Hypothetically, of course, you can delete your chat. You also have to make sure that the person to whom you were chatting also deletes the chat file. Can they still be retrieved? Yes, but it takes a little more skill than your basic John Q. Public.
Hypothetically, one should never say anything in chat (private or chatroom) that they wouldn’t want their grandmother to hear from their very lips. Good advice, hypothetically.