Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Apr;56(4):3658-3684.
doi: 10.3758/s13428-023-02276-1. Epub 2023 Dec 21.

ChatDashboard: A Framework to collect, link, and process donated WhatsApp Chat Log Data

Julian Kohne  1   2 , Christian Montag  3
Affiliations

ChatDashboard: A Framework to collect, link, and process donated WhatsApp Chat Log Data

Julian Kohne et al. Behav Res Methods. 2024 Apr.

Abstract

In this paper, we present ChatDashboard, a framework for collecting, linking, and processing donated WhatsApp chat log data. The framework consists of the WhatsR R package for parsing, anonymizing, and preprocessing donated WhatsApp chat logs, the ChatDashboard R Shiny web app for uploading, reviewing, and securely donating WhatsApp chat logs, and DashboardTester, an automated script for testing the correct setup of the framework by simulating participants. With ChatDashboard, researchers can set up their own data collections to gather transparently donated WhatsApp chat log data from consenting participants and link them to survey responses. It enables researchers to retrospectively collect highly granular data on interpersonal interactions and communication without building their own tools from scratch. We briefly discuss the advantages of donated WhatsApp chat log data for investigating social relationships and provide a detailed explanation of the ChatDashboard framework. Additionally, we provide a step-by-step guideline in the supplementary materials for researchers to set up their own data donation pipelines.

Keywords: ChatDashboard; Computer-mediated communication; DashboardTester; Data donation; Relationships; WhatsApp; WhatsR.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
An overview of the data donation process with ChatDashboard framework. Personal identifiable information (PII) is removed automatically, and only self-selected data are encrypted and saved on the host server. Icons are from https://www.flaticon.com/
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Overview of the functionalities of different functions and a typical workflow for processing a raw WhatsApp chat log using the WhatsR package. Icons are from https://www.flaticon.com/
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distribution of emojis sent in a WhatsApp chat, preprocessed with the parse_chat() function and plotted with the plot_emoji() function.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Amount of sent tokens in a WhatsApp chat log per person over time. Data were preprocessed using the parse_chat() function and visualized using the plot_tokens_over_time() function.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Network of replies from a WhatsApp group chat. Each node represents a group chat participant, each edge represents a reply to a previous message. Data were preprocessed using the parse_chat() function and visualized using the plot_network() function.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
ChatDashboard landing page for authenticating participants. Participants can log in with a valid username and password. These can be either predefined or generated using a passed URL parameter (e.g., "?id=”) to enable linking with anonymous survey responses.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
ChatDashboard data selection page. Participants can see a parsed version of their uploaded data and decide interactively which parts they want to donate. Each column and row can be interactively excluded from the donation. Columns containing PII are colored in gray and cannot be donated, even if manually selected.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
ChatDashboard feedback page. After donating anonymous data, participants get access to interactive visualizations of their own chatting behavior. These display the raw data with all contained PII but are only ever accessible to participants themselves. All raw data and visualizations are deleted as soon as participants close the website. The displayed screenshot is based on simulated data using WhatsR::create_chatlog()
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Afifi TD, Merrill AF, Davis S. The theory of resilience and relational load. Personal Relationships. 2016;23(4):663–683. doi: 10.1111/pere.12159. - DOI
    1. Aicken CR, Mercer CH, Cassell JA. Who reports absence of sexual attraction in Britain? Evidence from national probability surveys. Psychology & Sexuality. 2013;4(2):121–135. doi: 10.1080/19419899.2013.774161. - DOI
    1. Aron A, Paris M, Aron EN. Falling in love: Prospective studies of self-concept change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1995;69:1102–1112. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.69.6.1102. - DOI
    1. Baber VM. Relational maintenance: An examination of how gender, relational maintenance strategies, and commitment affect the use of text messages in romantic relationships. Eastern Michigan University; 2012.
    1. Baumeister RF, Leary MR. The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin. 1995;117:497–529. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources