Knox's feature analyzes messaging history to graph relationship closeness over time. While insightful, it can also create somber moments by revealing friendships or romantic relationships that have declined.

According to psychiatrist Mimi Winsberg, the degree to which two people mirror each other's texting style—such as vocabulary, sentence length, and emoji use—is a strong indicator of chemistry. This "language-style matching" is a digital equivalent of mirroring body language and predicts long-term sustainability.

Counterintuitively, arguing via text can benefit highly volatile couples. The act of writing forces a calmer mindset than speaking in anger. It also creates an objective record of what was said, preventing misremembering and disputes over words, and allowing for a more deliberate, less escalated conflict.

Psychiatrist Mimi Winsberg explains that pronoun choice in texts is a window into personality. People who use second-person pronouns ("you," "your") tend to be more agreeable and conscientious, making them better long-term partners. Conversely, heavy use of "I" can be a marker for depression.

Catastrophic relationship failures are rarely caused by a single event. Instead, they are the result of hundreds of small moments where a minor conflict could have been repaired with validation or an apology, but wasn't. The accumulation of these unrepaired moments erodes the relationship's foundation over time.

Instead of waiting for problems, couples can implement a simple weekly check-in. Asking specific questions ("What 3 things made you feel loved? What 3 could I do better?") provides a structured, low-friction way to perform preventative maintenance on the relationship.

By feeding years of iMessage data to Claude Code, a user demonstrated that AI can extract deep relational insights. The model identified emotional openness, changes in conversational topics over time, and even subtle grammatical patterns, effectively creating a 'relational intelligence' profile from unstructured text.

Most couples view therapy as a last resort. A more effective approach is to engage in it proactively at the beginning of a relationship to establish tools for clear communication and ensure value alignment, preparing the couple to handle future challenges constructively.

Research by The Gottman Institute identified four behaviors that strongly predict breakups: criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt. Of these "Four Horsemen," contempt—the feeling that a person is worthless or beneath consideration—is the most powerful and destructive predictor of a relationship's demise, acting like "sulfuric acid."