Instagram Direct Message Analytics

Instagram direct message analyser reads downloadable user data and calculates and returns conversation statistics and plots graphs to represent analytics. Program is a python script which uses the Pandas library and the MatPlotLib module.

Requirements

Before running the python script, the following prerequisites must be met:

1. Have python (version 3.10 or greater) installed on your system

2. Install the pip modules specified in the requirements.txt file to your system or in a python virtual environment

3. Download your instagram user data by logging in to your account and going to Settings > Privacy and Security > Data download and navigate to the inbox directory

Running

To run the python script, activate the virtual machine if necessary, then execute the following command in a terminal:

python -path /path/to/dir --plot

CLI Parameters

Script provides a very simple command line interface

Parameter	Description
-path	Allows user to specify path to inbox directory containing message.json files. Requires additional argument (path). By default, script searches message files in the same directory.
-list-messages	Prints all the messages exchanged on a specified date in the format yyyy/mm/dd.
--plot	Plots matplotlib stacked bar chart displaying messages by user over time.
--help	Prints help text and terminates program prematurely.