Techniques for identifying conversations in multiple short strings include determining from a first plurality of strings associated with a first contact of a user, based on time separations between successive strings, a first conversation portion and a different second conversation portion. The first conversation portion (snippet) comprises a plurality of strings of the first plurality; and the second snippet comprises a different pluralty of strings of the first plurality. A first semantic content for the first snippet and a second semantic content for the second snippet are determined. It is determined whether to merge the first snippet and the second snippet into a first conversation that includes the first snippet based, at least in part, on a similarity of the first semantic content to the second semantic content.