The project can be cloned from github using the following command

git clone https://github.com/JKelly423/whatsapp-wordcloud.git

Navigate to the project directory using cd as follows

cd whatsapp-wordcloud

Run the following command to install all dependancies required

pip install -r requirements.txt

The WhatsApp chat must be extracted before the project is executed. Instructions for exporting your WhatsApp chat can be found here for Android and IOS. The exported file _chat.txt will be used to generate the WordClouds.

In order to differentiate your messages from your partner's messages, you will need to configure the Contact Names for both you and your partner.

The configuration of the Contact Names as well as the WhatsApp chat log filepath will need to be configured within the config.json file before the project is executed. The config.json file will be configured as shown below:

{
  "my_name":        "my_contact_name_as_appears_in_Whatsapp",
  "partner_name":   "partner_contact_name_as_appears_in_Whatsapp",
  "chat_filepath":  "./data/_chat.txt"
}

The default value for chat_filepath is ./data/_chat.txt. To use this default value, copy your exported _chat.txt file from your WhatsApp export into the /data directory of the project directory.

For example, if your name (as shown in the WhatsApp chat) is John and your partners name (as shown in the WhatsApp chat) is Jane Doe, your config will look like this:

{
  "my_name":        "John",
  "partner_name":   "Jane Doe",
  "chat_filepath":  "./data/_chat.txt"
}

After configuration is complete and all dependacies, the project can be executed using the following command.

python3 whatsapp-wordcloud.py

After allowing the program to run, the completed WordCloud images will be saved in the /output directory, named my_name_wordcloud.png and partner_name_wordcloud.png based on your name configuration. Enjoy!