How to make a Messenger chat screenshot that looks real

What you need

The other person's name, a profile photo if you want one, and a short script. Fakeconvo's Messenger chat generator draws the chat in the Messenger style, is free, needs no account and puts no watermark on the PNG. Your photos and text stay in your browser.

Five steps to a realistic Messenger chat

1. Set up the other person. Under People, type their name, like "Sam Carter". The header shows the name with "Active now" and a green dot on the profile photo, plus the call and video icons. Click the round button before the name to add a photo. For a group, switch on "Group chat", type the "Group name" and use "+ Add person": the header shows two stacked photos, and each person's name appears above their first message in a row.
2. Write the messages. Under Messages, use "+ From …" for the other person and "+ From me" for yours. Messages in a row from the same person are joined into one block with tighter corners, and their profile photo sits next to the last one, as in the app. Use "+ Photo" for a picture, with an optional "Caption".
3. Add replies and reactions. Pick a message in "Reply to" and the bubble gets a quote with Messenger's label, such as "You replied to Sam Carter" or "Sam Carter replied to you"; a quoted photo shows as a small dimmed copy. Under "Reactions", tap an emoji to pin it to the corner of a bubble.
4. Get the receipt right. Messenger shows the status under your newest message only, and so does the generator: an empty circle for "Sent", a filled check circle for "Delivered", and, when the "Status" is "Read" and "Read receipts" is on in Settings, a tiny copy of the other person's profile photo. That little photo is the detail people look for.
5. Set the time and export. With "Show timestamps" on, the first message's "Today" time sits above the thread, a pause of an hour or more between two messages gets its own time header, and your last message shows its time. Choose "Dark mode" if you want the black look, set the "Status bar time" and battery, and download the PNG at 2x or 3x, as the phone screen or the whole chat.

Details that make a Messenger chat look staged

Real Messenger chats are short and loose: several quick lines in a row, a thumbs-up or a heart as an answer, a photo with no caption. A chat where every message is a long, perfectly punctuated sentence reads like a script.

Check the times. Each message has a "Time" field, and the generator only adds a header when there is a pause of an hour or more, so give a fast back-and-forth times a minute or two apart. Keep the read photo for a message the other person has really answered or could have seen, and use "+ Date / notice" for a line like "Yesterday" when a day passes.

Use it the right way

Messenger screenshots are for videos, sketches, stories, social media posts, app designs and lessons, such as showing people what a Marketplace scam message looks like. Do not put words in the mouths of real people, do not make a chat that looks like proof of something that never happened, and do not use one to scam, bully or embarrass anyone. Our acceptable use page has the details.