Transform Telegram chat export in JSON to a easy-to-read line-by-line text file.

tg-json-export-to-text.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import json
import sys

if len(sys.argv) == 1:
    print(f'Usage: {sys.argv[0]} result.json > result.txt')
    sys.exit(1)

with open(sys.argv[1], 'r') as f:
    data = json.load(f)

for msg in data['messages']:
    prefix = []

    prefix.append(msg['date'])

    if 'from' in msg and msg['from'] is not None:
        prefix.append(msg['from'])
    elif 'actor' in msg and msg['actor'] is not None:
        prefix.append(msg['actor'])

    print(' '.join(prefix), end='')

    if msg['type'] == 'service':
        print(f" [!!action={msg['action']}]")
        continue

    if msg['type'] != 'message':
        print(f" [!!type={msg['type']}]")
        continue

    meta = []

    if 'media_type' in msg:
        if msg['media_type'] == 'sticker':
            meta.append('Sticker')
        elif msg['media_type'] == 'animation':
            meta.append('Animation')
        elif msg['media_type'] == 'voice_message':
            meta.append('Voice')
        elif msg['media_type'] == 'video_file':
            meta.append('Video')
        elif msg['media_type'] == 'audio_file':
            meta.append('Audio')
        else:
            meta.append(f"[!!media_type={msg['media_type']}]")

    if 'photo' in msg:
        meta.append('Photo')

    if 'sticker_emoji' in msg:
        meta.append(msg['sticker_emoji'])

    if 'mime_type' in msg:
        meta.append(f'"{msg["mime_type"]}"')

    if 'width' in msg or 'height' in msg:
        assert 'width' in msg and 'height' in msg
        meta.append(f"{msg['width']}*{msg['height']}")

    if 'duration_seconds' in msg:
        meta.append(f"{msg['duration_seconds']}s")

    if 'poll' in msg:
        poll = msg['poll']
        meta.append('Poll')
        meta.append(poll['question'])

    if 'location_information' in msg:
        loc = msg['location_information']
        meta.append('Location')
        meta.append(f"{loc['longitude']},{loc['latitude']}")

    if len(meta) > 0:
        print(f" ({' '.join(meta)})", end='')

    if msg['text'] == '':
        if len(meta) == 0:
            print(' [!!message]')
        else:
            print()
        continue

    print(' ', end='')
    if isinstance(msg['text'], str):
        print(msg['text'].replace('\n', ' '), end='')
    else:
        for m in msg['text']:
            if isinstance(m, str):
                print(m.replace('\n', ' '), end='')
            else:
                print(m['text'].replace('\n', ' '), end='')

    print()