Courts generally analyze text messages under the same evidentiary framework used for emails, letters, and other written communications, meaning they must satisfy the same basic requirements: relevance to the case, authenticity, and compliance with rules against hearsay unless an exception applies.

Because text messages are created and stored digitally, they often come with metadata — timestamps, sender and recipient numbers, and delivery records — that can help establish authenticity in ways that are sometimes harder to achieve with other forms of communication.

Before a text message can be admitted as evidence, the party offering it typically needs to show it is what it purports to be — that is, that it was actually sent by and to the people the message appears to involve. This can be done through witness testimony, phone records, screenshots with corroborating context, or forensic extraction from the device itself.

Simply presenting a screenshot without any corroborating context is often vulnerable to challenge, since screenshots can be edited or taken out of context; more reliable authentication methods, such as records obtained directly from a carrier or a forensic copy of the device, tend to carry more weight.

A text message offered to prove the truth of what it says is generally subject to hearsay rules, meaning it may be excluded unless it falls within a recognized exception, such as being a statement by an opposing party, made against that party's own interest, or covered by another established exception.

Other issues can arise as well, including questions about whether messages were altered, whether they were sent by the account owner personally, or whether they were obtained lawfully, all of which can affect whether a court allows them into evidence even after basic authenticity is established.

Because text messages can be deleted, altered, or lost when a phone is replaced, preserving the original device or obtaining carrier records early is important if the messages may become relevant to a dispute, rather than relying solely on screenshots taken later.

In litigation, the strength of text message evidence often depends as much on how it was preserved and authenticated as on its actual content, so early attention to preservation can materially affect how persuasive that evidence turns out to be at trial.