Try restoring it. A backup is only good if you can make it work again, and an export function is only good if there is something else that you can import it back into.
I guess I'm missing how that relates to the comparison I made.
Google at least lets me back things up.
Most services do not allow it at all.
So there's no restoring anywhere else at all, no chance.
Having the data I could at least have a chance that some service might offer a rebuilt import option to pick up those google users ... or I could build it myself / at least have the information.
To me that's still leaps and bounds better than any other options that I know of.
The GDPR obliges all companies to provide an option for users to receive all data held on them; takeout and FB'd equivalent were implemented in response to that.
For all other companies, at least if you are in the EU, you should he able to request the data by eg email and they are obliged to send it. You just don't know what format you'll get.
Yeah, a lot of exported data is basically unidirectional.
Google Voice exports your texts into a clumsy pile of HTML files. That's why I wrote a parser to convert all of your Google Voice messages into structured data.
