3rd party chat applications are now the norm for exchanging information and as a forensic lab we are having to keep up with the ever changing requirements to extract and present these records as evidence. These platforms are cheaper than traditional billed SMS or MMS services and offer more security for users. The extraction of this content is a permanent game of cat and mouse for our team, as security exploits are found and offer access, they are sewn up by software developers and so new exploits are found and so on and so forth.
What we can do regarding these applications changes month on month and a call to the forensics team is generally your first best bet when looking at a means of capture, preservation and presentation of 3rd parts chat application data.
In some instances we can recover deleted data relating to WeChat, Whatsapp etc but this a very case by case basis. Factors such as time of deletion, actions since and the prevalence of application use are all contributing factors to what will be possible when it comes to looking at your phone. Phone model and operating system will play a big role in what we can do also.
Our team is reachable via the 0800 328 2522 free call number any time in NZ and we would encourage anyone needing to recover or preserve for evidence and WeChaat, Whatsapp, Instagram or any 3rd party application software to call through and have a chat with an expert about options.
Find the below link also for directions as to what to do next
https://www.datalab.co.nz/digital-forensics/mobile-forensics